Smith all smiles

Graeme Smith, who struck a first-innings century, saluted his side's comeback © Getty Images

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South Africa captain Graeme Smith captain was delighted with his side’s Test series win over West Indies despite their slide down the rankings.

The Proteas recorded a comprehensive victory by an innings and 100 runs in the third Test at Kingsmead to clinch the series 2-1.

But the news that they have dropped to third in the International Cricket Council rankings, behind Sri Lanka in second place, did little to dampen the spirits of Smith's side.

"We're not too fussed about that at the moment," Smith said. "We know we let ourselves down in the first Test in Port Elizabeth so we're really just chuffed with the way we performed in the last two Tests.

"The challenge is to keep on getting better as individuals and as a team, and if we can do that - better ourselves, better our training methods, better our performances - then everything else takes care of itself.

"There have been some wonderful highlights, some really good individual performances, and a really good fight back by a South African team that has shown a lot of skill and a good will to win.

Andre Nel and AB de Villiers enjoy South Africa's march to victory © Getty Images

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"And right now it's important to celebrate a good Test series victory. We know if we perform well the rest of the year, the rankings will take care of themselves."

The 26-year-old was also pleased with his own form after he hit 147 in the first innings.

"It was nice to make a big hundred in the first innings here," Smith added.

"I had a pretty good Test and one-day series in Pakistan then came back to (face) New Zealand, and didn't have the best innings against them.

"I got two starts in the first three innings of this series and didn't really cash in, but then once I got that 85, the confidence came back and everything started to flow.

"Two hundreds and an eighty in six or seven Test matches - hopefully we can step it up a gear again."

Smith also praised West Indies for a competitive Test series which they 1-0 after the first Test.

He said: "I think we outplayed them in this game, but other than that, we've had to earn everything we've got in this series. They played very good cricket and we had to work very hard.

"We probably broke them down a little bit in this Test to beat them in three days, but they've shown a lot more character and discipline and more of a will to fight and put in good performances."