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India vs South Africa 2015: The Nagpur pitch deserves all the criticism that comes its way and here’s why

Even the very joy of spin bowling was undermined on the Jamtha track due to the ease of each dismissal.

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The nature of the pitch did not allow for a single significant period of well-settled, classy batting © AFP
The nature of the pitch did not allow for a single significant period of well-settled, classy batting © AFP

Not often does the nature of the surface become more significant a topic of conversation than the actual play itself. The Jamtha track playing host to the third Test between India and South Africa achieved that distinction. On a day which saw 20 wickets tumble, there were a number of opinions about the surface flooding in from all quarters. Players — current, past, and even from neutral countries — chipped in, as did fans, experts, and journalists; their opinions were heavily polarised. Rishad D’Souza is of the opinion that the pitch which facilitated volatile turn enough for part-timers like Dean Elgar to look threatening was a disservice to Test cricket. FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: India vs South Africa 2015, 3rd Test at Nagpur

Firstly it is important to state the sanctity and validity of home advantage. The pitch should definitely suit the home side and that is an unquestionable moral right. The surface at Jamtha was evidently spin friendly and gave the Indian team an outright advantage. The Indians, who have been denied the luxury of a home Test series for about two years amid the rubble of their horrible away episodes, deserved a surface that catered to their requirements. But, the need to deliver good Test cricket should be paramount and that is where the Nagpur pitch faltered miserably.

Ideally a surface should deliver on the home advantage front, which in this case would always be spin bowling. But in doing so the balance for that one discipline should not be so skewed that other elements in the game are driven to the brink of redundancy. If the spin bowlers have the goldmine, the others at least should at least have a copper-mine, where if they dig deep they might be able to extract similar value. Full Cricket Updates: India vs South Africa 2015, 3rd Test at Nagpur, Day 2

This was quite obviously not the case at Jamtha. Even the most docile, unthreatening spin bowlers produced rippers and fast bowlers of the caliber of Kagiso Rabada and Ishant Sharma looked harmless. As far as batting goes, the skill of meeting willow to leather was reduced to little more than a mere lottery. Most unfortunately, the very joy of spin bowling was sucked out. The art of spin bowling requires guile and incredible amount of skill. One of the most enchanting sights in cricket is that of a spinner planning and plotting the slow death of batsmen over the course of a spell. Giving the ball air luring the batsman into a seductive haze and then venomously turning the ball away at the last moment to fatally deceive the victim — that would be the classic spin bowler dismissal. But at Jamtha the narrative of each dismissal was pale. The spinner had to simply employ the most rudimentary basic and the pitch would make the ball diverge violently. It was the pitch working on behalf of the bowlers sapping the human touch out of the art. 

A portion of the people who voiced support for the pitch drew parallels to seam-friendly wickets which have often been cause for equally low and lower totals in the not so distant past. However, in each of those instances, the tide of extreme support for seamers was only a passing theme influenced perhaps by overhead conditions or an adrenaline rush in the fast bowlers propelling them as destructive forces. Yet, at least some support for batsmen and spinners re-emerged at some point in the game. Related: “Diabolical” pitch or not, this is Test cricket!

However, at Jamtha the nature of the case is vastly different. There were puffs of dust emerging from the track on impact of ball right in the first session of play on Day One. That spin-supportive trait can’t be legally nullified during the course of a Test. Hence, the theme for the entire Test was a pre-determined monotony. The many flavours that make Test cricket endearing to its already limited clout of fans were conspicuous only by their absence. The Nagpur track will deliver India as the rightful victors (unless the South African innings is touched by providence), but will not be classed by most as a good advertisement for Test cricket.

(Rishad D’Souza, a reporter with CricketCountry, gave up hopes of playing Test cricket after a poor gully-cricket career. He now reports on the sport. You can follow @RDcric on Twitter)

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