Tennis elbow has finally taken its toll on the south african captain. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't play in any more one day games in England. As mentioned his priority is to be 100% for the Series against Australia

Smith in doubt for third ODI

Cricinfo staff

August 28, 2008


Graeme Smith played the first two matches despite being troubled by a tennis elbow © Getty Images


Graeme Smith, the South Africa captain, is unlikely to play the third one-dayer against England on Friday after failing to recover from a tennis elbow problem that has troubled him through the first two matches.

Smith will see a specialist on Thursday and there is the possibility that he might miss the remaining matches in the series for Shane Jabaar, South Africa's physiotherapist, is keen to start rehabilitation as soon as possible.

"A tennis elbow is a chronic problem and one can't say how long the rehabilitation will take," Jabaar told Supercricket. "We want to avoid surgery but if rehabilitation does not work we'll have to think again. I've been treating him since the first tour match [in Taunton at the end of June] and he has been taking painkillers."

South Africa are trailing 2-0 in the five-match series and Smith's likely absence puts them under further pressure as they look to avoid a series defeat at The Oval. The team was bowled out for 83 in the second match at Trent Bridge.

Jacques Kallis is expected to take over the captaincy even though Mark Boucher is the team's vice-captain. Boucher said though Kallis had given up the vice-captaincy last year, he would help the team in case of an emergency. Boucher also said the senior players had to step up if South Africa wanted to come back in the series.

"I said to the guys in the changing room after the game that not all is lost," Boucher said. "We have been 2-0 down before and came back to win that series in Pakistan. Somehow we have got to try to do it again. It seems a long way away to win three games in a row but England have won two in a row and it's only one more game than that. We have talked about trying to forget what happened at Trent Bridge but you can't."

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