IPL playerSouth Africa2008 to 2011
Graeme Smith
On scorecards: GC Smith · Right-hand bat
Graeme Smith, a batter, played four IPL seasons for two franchises. One title came along the way.
The arrival
Graeme Smith arrived through the auction: Rajasthan Royals paid ₹1 cr (US$250k), the base price, at the very first IPL auction.
That first season brought 11 matches and 441 runs, and ended with Rajasthan Royals as champions. It would stay the best season of the career with the bat.
The peak
The high point with the bat was 2008, for Rajasthan Royals: 441 runs at an average of 49.0, striking at 121.8 in a season when the league as a whole struck at 129.1, with 3 fifties, and a highest score of 91. Rajasthan Royals won the title that year.
Franchise by franchise
2008 to 2010, Rajasthan Royals. Bought at the 2008 auction for ₹1 cr. 25 matches and 697 runs; champions in 2008.
2011, Pune Warriors. Bought at the 2011 auction for ₹2.25 cr. 4 matches and 42 runs.
2 spells with two franchises in all. The longest was with Rajasthan Royals, 2008 to 2010.
How the runs came
Across the career, Graeme Smith struck at 110.6. The league around those same seasons, weighted by how much batting each one involved, struck at 124.4, so Graeme Smith scored about 14 runs per hundred balls slower than the typical batter of the time. 58% of the runs came in fours and sixes: 94 fours and 9 sixes.
The ball-by-ball record adds the detail. 44.2% of the balls Graeme Smith faced were dot balls, a higher share than 94% of the 140 batters who have faced 500 balls or more in the IPL. A six came every 74.2 balls, and a four every 7.1.
The fielding record: 7 catches.
At the auction
Graeme Smith went under the hammer twice. The highest price was ₹2.25 cr (US$500k), paid by Pune Warriors in 2011. The price climbed with the reputation: ₹1 cr in 2008, ₹2.25 cr by 2011.
Seasons without an auction entry were played under a retention, a trade or a signing made outside the auction.
The legacy
Graeme Smith made 29 IPL appearances, the last for Pune Warriors in 2011, and won 2 player-of-the-match awards.
Season by season
| Season | Team | M | Runs | HS | Avg | SR | 50/100 | Wkts | Econ | Best | Ct | POTM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Rajasthan Royals | 11 | 441 | 91 | 49.0 | 121.8 | 3/0 | – | – | – | 2 | 1 | Champions |
| 2009 | Rajasthan Royals | 12 | 212 | 77 | 19.3 | 98.2 | 1/0 | – | – | – | 2 | 1 | |
| 2010 | Rajasthan Royals | 2 | 44 | 26 | 22.0 | 112.8 | 0/0 | – | – | – | 2 | ||
| 2011 | Pune Warriors | 4 | 42 | 24 | 10.5 | 82.3 | 0/0 | – | – | – | 1 |
Franchise journey
- Rajasthan Royals: 2008 to 2010
- Pune Warriors: 2011
Ball-by-ball detail
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Dot balls faced | 44.2% |
| Balls per four | 7.1 |
| Balls per six | 74.2 |
| Catches | 7 |
| Run-outs | 0 |
| Stumpings | 0 |
At the auction
Sources
- CricArcade IPL season statistics
- CricArcade IPL auction archive
- Kaggle IPL Complete Match Dataset 2008-2026, ball-by-ball, cross-checked against Cricsheet