Is Graeme Smith the

best test finisher of his generation?

He has played some monumental 4th innings.

Ponting has a tremendous 4th innings record and has chased down many a total

The best 4th innings knock I have seen was Lara's 153* against Aus in 1999.

Mark Butcher's 172 at Headingley in 2001 was good as well.

Without having any statistical evidence to hand, I seem to remember Trescothick being pretty decent in the 4th innings.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=1;filter=advanced;innings_number=4;orderby=batting_average;qualmin1=500;qualval1=runs;result=1;spanmax1=31+Dec+2011;spanmin1=01+Jan+1990;spanval1=span;template=results;type=batting

smith now has the most hundreds in successful 4th innings chases. in test history

where is Tendulkar on that list?

lardbucket wrote:where is Tendulkar on that list?

It only lists the top 100.

Harsh. And not even fair.

everyone is obsessed with tendulkar. what a man

Is Graeme Smith the.... biggest qunt in cricket? No, not any more. Still a bit of a qunt though.

Plus he's gay and a bit fat.

Probably one of the most underrated batsmen of the modern era. He and Cook will get very close to whatever runs record SRT ends up setting.

not sure if he is underrated. a bit like inzi i guess, can be very very good at times, approaching great. but also has long periods where he is just about good. a solid bat, but not one of the top ones of his era

hard to believe he is only 9 years into his test career though. seems to have been around for more than that

I actually thought Inzi was a bit overrated.

don't you mean overweighted?

The One wrote:not sure if he is underrated. a bit like inzi i guess, can be very very good at times, approaching great. but also has long periods where he is just about good. a solid bat, but not one of the top ones of his era

hard to believe he is only 9 years into his test career though. seems to have been around for more than that

Smith has played a number of matchwinning innings.

I rate that higher than simply accumulating runs on roads.

Henry wrote:I actually thought Inzi was a bit overrated.

by pakistanis. especially imran khan who still believes inzi was the best of his era

i think most would put him in the below great bracket. with an azhar, a thorpe, a mark waugh

Henry wrote:Probably one of the most underrated batsmen of the modern era. He and Cook will get very close to whatever runs record SRT ends up setting.

Why 'underrated'? Because no one calls him 'great' yet?

I used to think he was quite fit. Not while he was demolishing England in '03, but maybe after that. Plus, his aussie double plays in my bf's Yorkshire league team. Uncanny.

Hayden and Langer chased down many a total on their own. Course, they often had lots of sessions or an innings in hand to do so.