Until Rishabh Pant reverse-scooped Barry McCarthy for a six over first slip’s head to secure an emphatic eight-wicket win for India, the T20 World Cup contest against Ireland in New York appeared more like the first morning of a Test match.
The Nassau County International Cricket Stadium pitch that hosted India’s T20 World Cup campaign opener, has come under sharp criticism with former cricketers Irfan Pathan and Micheal Vaughan categorising it as unsafe.
“Look, we definitely want to promote cricket in America, but this pitch is not safe for players. If we had a pitch like this in India, a match would never be played there again for a very long time. This pitch is definitely not good. I mean, we are talking about the World Cup here, not even a bilateral series,” Pathan said.
India skipper Rohit Sharma retired hurt after being struck on the upper arm by a delivery from Ireland bowler Josh Little which suddenly took off from length in the ninth over of the chase. Rohit, who was batting on a well-set 52 off 37 deliveries, walked off the field before Pant and Shivam Dube safely guided India home in extremely difficult batting conditions.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan was also critical about the pitch and termed it as “sub-standard”.
“Trying to sell the game in the States is great .. love it .. but for players to have to play on this sub standard surface in New York is unacceptable .. You work so hard to make it to the WC then have to play on this,” Vaughan said.
Pant was also struck by Little in the 11th over of the chase, on a pitch that posed several challenges to the batters. He needed some attention from the physio but continued his innings, finishing unbeaten 36 off 26 balls.
Former Zimbabwe batter and England head coach Andy Flower said the pitch was “bordering on dangerous,” after Ireland were shot out for 96.
“I have got to say that is not a good surface to play an international match on. It’s bordering on dangerous. You saw the ball bouncing from a length, both ways. So skidding low occasionally but in the main bouncing unusually high and striking people on the thumb, on the gloves, on the helmet and making life very very difficult for any batsman,” Flower was quoted as saying by espncricinfo.
“The Indian quicks were good enough to exploit it (the conditions), you’ve got to get that to them. They kept their game plan really simple, they hit the deck hard on a good length and that was all you needed to do. And it proved to be very tricky batting conditions for any side let alone a smaller cricketing nation like Ireland taking on the giants of India,” he added.
Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar feels that there was something wrong during the preparation of the wicket.
“You have seen dangerous pitches before as well at the international level but something has gone wrong with the preparation where either the pitch has been under-prepared or something that is beyond their control. This seems more like something beyond their control, where they have put in a lot of work in trying to get the right surface in the Big Apple and all that. But I said couple of days back as well, what can they do to make this pitch better? I am sure it is not lack of effort. At the most what you can do is keep rolling that drop-in pitch but they have a problem in hand. Inherently, I think there is something wrong with the base of that surface,” Manjrekar told espncricinfo.
Rohit fine but ‘just a little sore’
At the post-match presentation following India’s eight-wicket victory, Rohit said he was “just a little sore” but he was happy to eventually get those two points for the team.
“I said it at the toss, we were quite unsure of what to expect from the pitch. It’s a new ground, new venue, drop-in pitch, we weren’t aware of what’s it like to pay on a pitch that is five-months old. It was all about getting used to the conditions, that’s why we opted to bowl first. I don’t think the wicket settled down even when we batted second. There was enough for the bowlers, all in all, happy to get those two points, was very important.”
After the sound opening against Ireland, India will now prepare for the big-ticket clash against arch-rivals Pakistan at the same venue on June 9.