 Smith has not made a Test century since May 2005 in the Caribbean |
Home captain Graeme Smith admitted his side were well short of their best as India gained their first Test victory on South African soil in Johannesburg. "Credit to India, they were a lot more precise than us," Smith lamented.
"For us it's important we take our pain, we're going to get a lot of criticism, we take that and we've got to bounce back in Durban (Boxing Day).
"Everyone could see we weren't at our best but there's no doubt in my mind we have the ability to bounce back."
Smith, who guided his team to a 4-0 triumph in the one-day series at the beginning of the month, would not be drawn on suggestions that South Africa have been playing too much limited overs cricket recently.
"I'm sure there will be a lot of things said in the next few days," said the skipper, who scored only 15 runs in the two innings at The Wanderers.
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"But the important thing for us is to focus on the next game and take our lessons from this."
Fast bowler Dale Steyn suffered a thigh injury and is a doubt for the second match of the series starting in Durban on Boxing Day.
"We're going to have to wait and see, he's on the physio bed quite a lot at the moment getting his treatment so we'll have to monitor it.
"He's a big cog in our team and losing him for large parts of this match obviously cost us."
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