South Africa vs Australia 2018: 1st Test, day 1 - 5 things we learnt from the day

#4 Smith falls to his nemesis - left-arm spin

Steven Smith dug into some listless Proteas bowling post lunch

Steven Smith has become synonymous with scoring big runs and he started off the African Safari with a spectacular, easy half-century, built on some strong shots off the back-foot and a few ballerina moves against Keshav Maharaj. South Africa tried everything from a leg-slip to a wide second slip to bowling changes against Smith but in vain.

The breakthrough, however, came when Maharaj returned to the bowling attack and had Smith caught out at first slip. This was the 19th instance of Smith getting dismissed to a left-arm spinner in Tests. Ravindra Jadeja had exploited this weakness of Smith in India and Maharaj did the same on a sluggish Kingsmead surface.