Kolkata: What an amazing similarity! It was third test between India and South Africa in the year 2015. India had won the match with a thumping supremacy, ending the match, played at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Jamtha, Nagpur, in three days. Much hue and cry was raised from all quarters, other than the Indian contingent, regarding the pathetic condition of the pitch. Match referee Jeff Crowe was of the opinion that pitch did not bear fair contest between bat and ball. And he also forwarded a strongly worded report to ICC pitch committee. Even International Cricket Council (ICC) announced an official warning, through ICC Pitch committee, to VCA Stadium authorities in Nagpur. It was also declared as a poor pitch by doyen of cricket Like Australian Mathew Hayden and Englishman Michael Vaughan.
Indian captain Virat Kohli and coach Ravi shastri didn’t agree to any adverse comment made, regarding the pitch.
It was on Nov 27, 2015. South Africa had to lose their nine-year 15 days unbeaten series win outside their country after losing the test match in Nagpur’s VCA stadium under dubious spinning track. The match ended in three
days. Realising the condition of the pitch, India included only one pacer and three spinners in the side. And as usual Ravichandran Ashwin was the hero of the match taking 12 wickets giving only 98 runs. Inside the field Indian captain Kohli exulted after the series win. And also defended against the criticism of the pitch.
Asked if preparing tracks such as the one used in the third Test is India’s policy, Kohli said: “It is not a policy. It is just the conditions that we get in India. No point making 500 runs… You don’t create bowlers like that and bowlers win you Tests matches. The key is to win Test matches.
Now even after losing the series against South Africa in South Africa, India is trying to save their face by just having a consolation victory. And in fact ,many questions can be raised about the match as a whole.
On the third day, match was summarily closed after Jasprit Bumrah’s rising delivery hit Dean Elgar in the face after piercing the protection of the helmet. According to Sunil Gavaskar an all time cricketing great, it was the incompetency of the batsman to deal with the ball, not the condition of the pitch which caused the batsman’s injury. But still two umpires inside the field and the match referee in the commentary box had a long discussion with both the captains and decided to call off the match for that day and only 19 minutes of schedule time were lost.
Visibly Kohli was quite interested to continue the match at that time.
An interesting thing happened in the next day. After observing the pitch on the next day, coach Shastri exclaimed, “I was very surprised to see the pitch so wet, although it was under cover, when I
I saw it on Saturday morning.”
He also added , “I don’t know that could have happened. Then the
South Africans used the heavy roller to bind the surface. It seemed to play better.”
When Shastri raised eyebrows regarding some parts of the match, several
players were also astonished at the way the game was progressed. Just look at the bowling distribution of South African captain. Lungi Ngidi, the bowler who destroyed India in the second Test, was made to bowl only 27 overs in the match. And Adile Phehlukwayo, who bowled with much promise in the first innings where he took two wickets in his 7 overs giving only 25 runs, was only called into service for three overs in the second innings. No doubt India not only won the match also saved the prestige of no.1 ranked test side of ICC ranking and prevented a whitewash.
But now when ICC agreed to declare the Wanderers pitch a poor one, then one can easily raised questions that why players like Ajinkya Rahane was not ready to accept the dubious condition of the pitch. In fact Indians were quite afraid to accept the conditions because they don’t have to play the last innings of the test and also if they accept the theory of unplayable pitch ,then India may be deprived of a chance of victory for cancellation of the match. The ICC has already framed a law for condition of the pitch in which Test matches are to be played, proobably time has come to arrange for a broad based framework for preparation of test match pitches giving equal facilities to batsmen.
All said and done, both India and South Africa are going to lock horns in a six-match ODI series. The Proteas, who are currently the number one ranked side in the ICC ODI rankings need to avoid a loss to retain their position. India, who are just a point behind however require a series victory to remove South Africa from the zenith. Time has got the right answer.