England quicks James Anderson and Stuart Broad might be one of the most prolific new-ball Test pairings ever, but both bowlers had difficulty dealing with one particularly crafty left-handed batsman: Graeme Smith.

Interacting with Anderson on an Instagram live chat, Broad called Smith “an absolute nightmare” to bowl to, lauding the former South African captain’s ability to manoeuvre deliveries to the leg side with ease.

Broad, who famously tormented another left-handed opener, David Warner, during last year’s Ashes series, wished he could have employed the same plan against Smith, but conceded that hurling deliveries over the wicket to an in-form South African was “hopeless”.

“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.”

Anderson, who first played against Smith during South Africa’s tour to England in 2003, echoed Broad’s opinion.

“I had exactly the same problem,” Anderson 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 got 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 Broad had a hard time troubling Smith, managing just one dismissal in the 10 Tests they faced each other in, Anderson was relatively more successful, snaring the left-hander six times in 17 matches, the fourth most by any bowler.