INJURY TIME
LIFE’S A PITCH
hat is it with India blaming everything but playing poor cricket when they lose at home? Belted by England in the first Test in Chennai, it was the ball’s fault and pitch’s fault. Let’s deal with that pitch. England made five hundred and plenty in the first innings. Both teams were bowled out for under 200 in their respective second innings. India lost by two hundred and reports the following: “The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) central zone curator Taposh Chatterjee has been relieved of his duties to oversee the pitch preparation for the second Test starting on Saturday.” The second Test is also being played in Chennai. “Right through the first Test,” the continued, “India had expressed their displeasure about the pitch which didn’t provide any assistance to pacers or spinners on the first two days. At the end of the Test, pacer Ishant Sharma called it a road. While it indeed produced a result with the pitch deteriorating considerably over the last couple of days, the toss played a big role in the outcome of the result.” would like to reflect briefly on South Africa’s tour to India in 2015 – India lose the One-Day series after also losing the T20 series, with South Africa making 400-odd in the deciding ODI, suddenly word goes out that the pitches for the Tests need to be dry and help spin. Guess what, the pitches are dry and help spin. They are so dry and so helpful to spin that the pitch for the third Test in Nagpur is found by the ICC to be underprepared. India won the toss in the first and third Tests, both games finished in three days.
