Pitch continues to get flak

Even as the New Zealand team celebrated its first-ever 2-0 Test series win against India, the ‘substandard’ pitches came under som...

Even as the New Zealand team celebrated its first-ever 2-0 Test series win against India, the ‘substandard’ pitches came under some stinging criticism from the media which called the matches a ‘low-grade farce’ and ‘a poor advertisement for Test cricket’.

The formidable Indian batting line-up could manage just 507 runs from four innings in this series but the New Zealand Herald suggested that it reflected more on ‘‘New Zealand’s desire to play on wickets that would not so much advantage themselves but disadvantage the opposition’’ than the abilities of the Indian batsmen.

“Never mind that the Sachin Tendulkars and Rahul Dravids of this world have previously made cannon-fodder of bowlers such as Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie. They apparently have no clue about how to handle Daryl Tuffey and Jacob Oram, or for that matter, Nathan Astle’s slow mediums,” Richard Boock wrote in the paper.

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“It was not so much a Test match as a low-grade farce. It was apparent from the day India arrived that all stops were being pulled to ensure their batsmen played on the most difficult surfaces possible,” the paper said. “The lasting impression from this Test series will be the substandard pitches that India were forced to bat on and the subsequent drop-off in the quality of cricket.

“It was almost more of a comedy than a cricket Test, a slapstick type of performance that set all sorts of records for all the wrong reasons.”

The Daily News said an already bad pitch had been made worse by rains.

“In terms of quality, it was poor advertisement for cricket. Pitch conditions were stacked in the seam bowler’s favour after pre-Test rain juiced it up,” it wrote.

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Even New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming, who has admitted to his preference for bouncy tracks, confessed that the pitch condition took some gloss off his team’s victory.

“You enjoy when you win but you don’t enjoy the feelings throughout.”