Captain Smith stands up under fire

His team may have hit a historic low on the opening day of this second Commonwealth Bank Test, but captain Steve Smith responded well after a week where his leadership was questioned by some of the biggest names in the sport.

Smith was forced onto the defensive in the lead-up to the match after his captaincy and the culture of the Australian side was questioned by former Proteas skipper Graeme Smith, while Shane Warne and Michael Clarke criticised Smith's use of spinner Nathan Lyon during the first Test in Perth.

Having strongly defended both himself and his team during the week, Smith let his bat to the talking on day one in Hobart, his innings a rare bright spot on an otherwise gloomy day.

Australia's skipper scored 48 not out of his team's record low total of 85 in Hobart, striking half of his side's boundaries (five out of 10) and facing more deliveries (80) than the rest of the top seven combined (75).

Smith’s score represented more than 56 per cent of his team’s total, the first time an Australian skipper has scored more than half of his team’s score since Graham Yallop in 1979.

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Former teammate Chris Rogers said Smith had lived up to his billing as the world's No.1 Test batsman and was rightfully frustrated by the lack of support from his teammates.

"These are the conditions that sometimes set the best players apart," Rogers told Optus Sport's Stumps show.

"We saw it a little bit with (Hashim) Amla as well, they just seem to have a little bit more time with the way they go about it.

"Smith was definitely in control, he just needed someone to hang with him, even the tail (but they) came out and perhaps gave their wickets away a little bit too cheaply.

"As that last wicket fell, you could see the disappointment in Smith's body language, when he was walking off he was furious."

Smith came to the wicket with Australia reeling at 2-2 after two overs, and played a lone hand as the only batsman to score more than 10.

It was a situation former skipper Ricky Ponting lamented as "just one of those days", and highlighted the run out of Test debutant Callum Ferguson as particularly symptomatic.

"(Run outs) tend to happen when you're under pressure and there's a bit of panic around when you’re losing wickets," Ponting said on BT Sport.

"Steve Smith was out there as captain, he should have been trying to calm things down, but that didn't eventuate.

"He played well himself, Smith, he led from the front with the bat, but unfortunately 48 out of 85 is not that good."

Former England captain Michael Vaughan said South Africa capitalised on a batting line-up that, Smith aside, looked uncertain at the crease.

"They don't have the confidence levels, they don't look like they're playing in partnerships, and there's a lot of individuals fighting for their places in the side," Vaughan said.

"South Africa are capitalising on that. I think they can sense the Australians are not quite as tight as they have been in the past.

"Look at Australia's dismissals – yeah, there were decent balls in the right area but there's a number of the Australia batsman, their feet are stuck in super glue, hardly shifting out of the crease.

"Whether that's a mental problem, a lack of confidence or just a technical frailty, the one thing for sure is the South Africans know they've got a number of the Australian batsman on toast at the minute."

Australia head coach Darren Lehmann said there was "no hiding from the facts".

"We've just got to be better. When the ball's swinging we've struggled," Lehmann said after day one.

"We've been doing everything behind the scenes to get better at it but today we weren't as good as we should have been ... well, we weren't good at all.

"Steve Smith played really well and we needed someone to hang with him. Obviously our lower order haven't performed either but you can't blame them, the batters have to do the batting.

"Once we have a collapse we seem to have a big one and someone needs to stop that rot and have a partnership somewhere.

"A lot of good sides ... find a way to have a partnership somewhere and we didn't have one today so that was disappointing."

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