The man Broad and Anderson found 'impossible' to bowl to

Prolific England pace pair Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad say they found former South African skipper Graeme Smith to be one of the toughest batsmen to bowl to in their careers.

Smith enjoyed great success in his 21 Tests against England, scoring seven hundreds and averaging almost 57, with the high point being his consecutive double centuries against them in 2003.

While Broad didn’t play in that 2003 campaign, he says he found Smith "an absolute nightmare" to bowl to because of the left-hander's ability to score freely through the leg side.

Broad enjoyed great success against another left-handed opener, Australia's David Warner, during last year's Ashes campaign when bowling around the wicket and says he laments not being skilled enough early in his career to try that approach against Smith.

"Graeme Smith, I found an absolute nightmare," Broad said in an Instagram Live video with Anderson.

"I wish I could have bowled at him having worked on my around the wicket stuff and try and draw him to drive through extra cover.

"But for me just over the wicket trying to swing it into the stumps, hopeless."

South Africa's 2003 tour of England was arguably Smith's greatest performance as a Test player, highlighted by his scores of 277 and 259 at Edgbaston and Lord's respectively to start the series.

Anderson played in that series as a 20-year-old Test rookie and concedes he also had no idea how to quell Smith's prolific scoring through the leg side.

"I had exactly the same problem,” he said.

"When I first started, my first series against him was 2003 and all I could do then was swing the ball back in. I didn’t have an out-swinger to a left-hander and I couldn't wobble the ball across him.

"So I was just feeding his strength. I just go so annoyed.

"And when you thought 'alright, I'll start the ball a bit wider outside off stump', and he still got it through the leg-side.

"He got two double hundreds in that series in 2003. He was just impossible to bowl to. I hated it."

While Anderson did get the better of Smith later in his career, dismissing the opener six times in 17 Tests, Broad got the left-hander out only once in 10 matches.