Scary and dangerous

Mahela Jayawardene began this tour of India with a double hundred and hoped to finish it on a high, but was forced to sit out the Delhi ODI with a groin strain. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, reports Anand Vasu.

Mahela Jayawardene began this tour of India with a double hundred and hoped to finish it on a high, but was forced to

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Disgraceful: Kotla goes from bad to worse

Good days: In the 2008 IPL edition, the Kotla pitch was considered to be one of the best.

An error of judgement?- After the 2009 IPL was shifted to South Africa, the DDCA decided to put in a fresh square in the middle with an eye on the 2011 World Cup. The relaid wicket was praised as being the first in India to have drainage around the square. Fresh soil brought from abroad was used but the grass hadn’t spread evenly for the Champions League T20.

Bad results: The pitch was very slow during the Champions League T20 in October and was criticised by Delhi Daredevils captain Gautam Gambhir. Kotla featured five scores of below 100 while none of the other venues had even a single score of below 100.
Head of the pitches and grounds committee, Daljit Singh also admitted then that since the pitch was few months old, "it is not an ideal Twenty20 pitch".

Australia come calling: Just days after the CLT20, Australia played the third ODI of the seven-match series against India on October 31. The Kotla, in particular, always had a good batting track. But here the Australians made just 229 for 5. India chased it in the 49th over, with 6 wickets in hand.
The day before the game was marked by a controversy — the Australians were given wet pitches unsuitable for practice.
The curator, Vijay Bahadur Mishra, had watered the pitches not knowing the Aussies would come for practice at 9.00 am.

No Ranji: Delhi's home Ranji Trophy matches were played at the Roshanara grounds and not Kotla because the pitch was considered unprepared and unfit.

Redone but not tested: Following criticism after the India-Australia match, the pitch was redone in two months. The curator left patches of grass on the pitch to give it a lively look. Worse, it wasn't tested.
On the day of the match, the pitch bore patches of grass interspersed with bald areas, prompting Sunil Gavaskar to call it a "hair transplant wicket”.

Curators faith! - Just a couple of days before the match, Delhi curator Vijay Bahadur Mishra had said, "My personal assessment is the team that bats first should be able amass around 250 runs. But then, it all depends on how the batsmen use their batting technique.” Clearly, this did not happen.

sit out the Delhi ODI with a groin strain. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

“When we saw the pitch, we thought it would be two-paced, and that some deliveries would keep low, like during the CL T20,” Jayawardene told HT on Sunday evening. “But a few balls just took off. Jayasuriya was hit, Dilshan was hit so badly that he had to be rushed for an X-ray.”

“We understand that a lot goes into getting a ground ready for a match and that spectators are really keen,” explained Jayawardene. “We really wanted to make a match of it and played more than 20 overs. But when Kandamby and Pushpakumara got hit, we thought it was not fair play.”

Jayawardene and skipper Kumar Sangakkara then asked the batsmen to speak to the umpires. “They had a chat, then Kumar went and spoke to the umpires. The Indian players were probably also of the view that it was scary and dangerous,” said Jayawardene.

“If the odd ball does something funny then any batsman takes it as a challenge and tries to ride it out. But to expect the tailenders to bat in those conditions would have been putting them at risk,” said Jayawardene. “Later, the Indians would have been under the same gun.”

“The reaction time for a batsman is less than a second. If he has to judge line and length, and can't rely on the bounce, you become very vulnerable,” he explained. “At one point it went beyond challenge and into serious risk.”

Jayawardene, however, tried to play down the fallout of the incident. “I've played at Delhi before and it's usually a great pitch to bat on. But, in my limited experience, when you relay a square, it takes at least a year to settle down.”

Despite being at the receiving end, Jayawardene called for calm. “We should not point fingers at anyone. When the curators prepare a pitch, and we score 400, they're blamed. If we're out for 100, we say it's a rubbish pitch,” he said. “No one does these things purposely.”

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