Cricket World Cup: Run machine Smith formidable weapon in Aussies' hefty arsenal

Steve Smith was in all three international formats at 21 and he bats as if it is an easy business. Photo / Getty Images

If there's one player New Zealand need to be wary of, among a phalanx of top quality cricketers in the Australian team tomorrow, it could be Steven Smith.

The fresh-faced 26-year-old is in the peak of form, coming off yet another century off India this summer, to help push Australia into the final in Sydney on Thursday night.

Fancy your cricketers absolutely dedicated to the game to the nth degree? Then Smith's your man.

He has admitted in the past he is borderline obsessive.

At the crease he appears a bundle of nerves, full of pulling and pushing at his gear, a fidgeter par excellence, but when the ball meets the bat everything clicks, as it did in his 93-ball 105 on Thursday.

This is Australia's test captain in waiting, although he's already done it this summer when Michael Clarke was injured against India.

In those four tests, Smith scored a hundred each time and his test average sits above the magic 50 threshold by which the great batsmen are measured.

Smith set his sights on his career path early. He opted to leave Menai High School in Sydney's southwest before his final exams. He set off for England as a 17-year-old and played in the Kent Cricket League. "He was an incredibly shy lad, but very focused," said Gavan Burden, chairman of Sevenoaks Vine Club.

"He was only interested in playing cricket but he was very un-Australian. There was none of this 18 pints of beer and a curry. Not at all - he was a quiet, polite lad."

Back in Sydney, and plundering runs for Sutherland in senior grade cricket, he drew the admiring observation that he was "scary ... the kid is not normal," from captain Matthew Hughston after savaging bowling attacks.

From the time he graduated to the international team, initially as a batsman and legspinning allrounder in 2010 - the bowling part has slipped somewhat - Smith looked born to it.

Smith was in all three international formats at 21 and he bats as if it is an easy business.

But it's based on a fierce regimen of practice.

Captain Michael Clarke said on Thursday most players would have a quiet time in the lead-up to the final, before jerking his head at Smith and saying he assumed his No3 batsman would still head for the nets.

His confidence is high and, as he put it after the semifinal, he's hoping his form carries on at least for this one more, all important, game.

"I'm just happy where everything is at at the moment," he says.

Clarke has the highest praise for his heir apparent.

"One thing I've learned is getting runs and to be in form is a great feeling, but going to training the next day and trying to be better ... that's what makes great players."

Steven Smith

Age: 25
Tests: 26, Average 52.36, 8 hundreds
ODIs: 57, average 39.28, 4 hundreds

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