The Motera pitch - was it the villain?
April 7th 2008 15:29
No excuses for the poor performance. And there need be none. The batsmen need to be held guilty and accountable. But interestingly, our bowlers too were far from matching their South African counterparts. Where the SA bowlers could find that extra bit of bite and movement in the pitch even late in the 3rd day, the Indian bowlers could not.
I do believe that the rain late on the 2nd day had a role to play in the pitch responding well to the fast bowlers' efforts in the 3rd day. But then we had to suffer because of the hapless first innings batting performance.
As far as the pitch itself is concerned, while absolutely refusing to offer it up as an excuse for the abysmal performance of our team, I do believe that it was not what is to be called a 'sporting wicket'.
This wicket was one which would have aided the team bowling first greatly. In fact very significantly. It was still not a devilish wicket and neither was it even approaching the level of a green top. But it was a good, understanding surface for the bowlers. The bowlers would all have been proud of calling the surface their friend especially after their torrid battle with the Chepauk pitch. But once the initial sessions were seen through, there was not that additional help for the bowlers anymore.
Even in the Indian second innings, I suspect that the bowlers would not have got even the assistance that they ended up getting if there had not been any rain the previous day.
But these things are not in our hand. It is not a crime to have a different kind of pitch in India and expect our players to cope on it. In fact they have no excuse whatsoever for their failure.
But it is sheer folly to prepare a wicket which suits the visitors' game more than it does ours. The sooner we realize that the better it is. There is a school of thought that Australia, earlier this year prepared wickes that suited the visitors more than them and yet got away. The key word there is - got away. Lets take MCG. We saw what the media said and we saw how it turned out. That pitch was not a turner and nor did it aid India appreciably more than it did the Australians. In any case, if I was Australian I would have frowned upon the move to have relatively flatter tracks against the Indians. That would be weighted in favour of the Indians more than the Australians. The Australians had the mental wherewithal to overcome any perceived or present disadvantage and put one over the Indians. We did not exhibit any such quality in this game.
That, to me, is the long and short of it.
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