On the last day of the New Year’s Test at Cape Town in 2004, young Dwayne Smith made his Test debut for West Indies and scored a brilliant run a ball century, against the likes of Shaun Pollock, Andre Nel and Jacques Kallis. Chasing a mammoth total of 441 runs, West Indies were 221 for 4 when Dwayne Smith came into bat. He batted aggressively and scored 105 runs including 15 fours and 2 sixes. After this innings, Dwayne Smith announced himself at the Test match level, in the most aggressive manner.
However, Smith wasn’t able to live up to the expectations, and this remains his only century in Test cricket. But, in T20 cricket, Smith has made a good name for himself, and now he travels around the world to play T20 cricket.
Smith’s biggest criticism has been his inconsistency. But, since 2012, Smith has been scoring runs very consistently. During the IPL 2012, Smith showed his true potential and played some match-winning for the Mumbai Indians. He smashed 14 runs off the last three balls against Chennai Super Kings and won the match for Mumbai Indians. Even during the CLT20 2013, Smith played a big role in Mumbai’s victory. On the basis of the these consistent performances, Smith was also a part of the World Cup T20 in Sri Lanka, playing only the opening game.
In the last season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Dwayne Smith was picked by Chennai Super Kings, and now he’s their permanent opener with Brendon McCullum. Smith along with McCullum has been providing aggressive starts for the Chennai Super Kings and this lays a perfect foundation for the power-hitters like Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Dwayne Bravo.
In the ongoing CLT20 2014 tournament, Chennai Super Kings will be relying on Dwayne Smith for a good start. After losing their first match against Kolkata Knight Riders, the onus is on Chennai Super Kings to get on the board.
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Smith seems to have developed into a brilliant T20 player. On his day he can be very destructive and take the match away from the opposition in no time, single-handedly. Dwayne Smith has a lot to achieve in T20 cricket, if he maintains his consistency.
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by The Cricket Analyst
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