Kanpur, Nov 23 (Inditop.com) Curator at the Green Park Stadium, where the second cricket Test against Sri Lanka begins Tuesday, parroted the words of his counterpart on the eve of the first Test in Ahmedabad.
At Motera’s Sardar Patel Stadium, curator Dhiraj Parsana had predicted something for everyone over the five days and here Shiv Kumar says the same – something for the batsmen, pacers and spinners and that it is for the teams to exploit the conditions! Like at Motera, this pitch is also expected to play true and last the full five days of the Test.
A coincidence, early last year, the South Africa came here after winning the first Test in Ahmedabad by a big margin inside three days and found the ball turning square on the pitch. The Indians squared the series, flummoxing the visitors, but the Indian board was censured by the International Cricket Council (ICC), following a complaint by the South African Board, for coming up with an under-prepared pitch.
The three innings at Motera produced 1,598 runs and seven centuries, Mahela Jayawerdena’s 275 being the highest. It was a Test for the statistician as batsmen went about rewriting record books.
Two facts illustrate how tough it was for the bowlers. Only 21 wickets fell and spin king Muttiah Muralitharan got three of those, none in the second innings and on the last day when Sri Lanka were hoping to bowl out the Indians. Normally, the off-spinner revels under such circumstances on a sub-continental track, but the Motera pitch frustrated him. Indian offie Harbhajan Singh lambasted the killer track.
Here, the two would like to see an even battle between bat and ball and a fair competition that can restore the pre-eminence of Test cricket.
Despite the first Test meandering to a dull draw, the Sri Lankans can claim moral victory for gaining a huge 344-run lead on the first innings after rattling the Indians who slumped to 32 for four in the first session of the Test.
India were under pressure for most part of the match and once Mahela and Prasanna Jayawardene raised that record sixth wicket stand, the visitors were in a position to dictate terms.
For India, the positive from the first Test is that they managed to wriggle out of tight situations. Rahul Dravid played the most important knock, an uncharacteristically counter-attacking innings of 177 that pulled India out of serious trouble.
The top order batsmen got good batting practice in the second knock with Gautam Gambhbir and Sachin Tendulkar posting hundreds.
The matter of concern for India is bowling. The spinners were found wanting. Both Harbhajan and leg-spinner Amit Mishra struggled on a helpless pitch. The Indians might bring in left-arm Pragyan Ojha at the expense of Mishra who could not strike the right line or length in the first Test.
Comeback man Zaheer Khan showed clear signs of returning to his normal workload and Ishant Sharma, too, had a long bowl.
Sri Lanka would replace injured Dammika Prasad with either Dilhara Fernando or Nuwan Kulasekara. The visitors may not disturb the spin combination as Motera showing was not the right indicator of form, though the visitors will be tempted to play mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis. Spikker Kumar Sangakkara said they can go with a third spinner or a fast bowler.
