Twitter was abuzz from around the cricket world on Thursday when part-time spinner Dean Elgar picked his maiden four-for on Day One of the Mohali Test between India and South Africa. Many cried foul over the nature of the wicket, which behaved like a fourth day track from Day One itself. The cries are, in all fairness, unjustified — because playing on diverse surfaces adds to the beauty of the sport; what is more, a home team is entitled to play to its strength. Elgar himself had no business to call it “not a very good cricket wicket” after the end of Day One. Full Cricket Scorecard: India vs South Africa 2015, 1st Test at Mohali
On Day Three, decoding Elgar’s statement, it was not a very good cricket wicket — for the South African side; they are, of course, not used to playing on such surfaces. The wicket wasn’t a rank turner as the batsmen made it seem like, and it was really good of the opposition captain Hashim Amla to graciously accept the defeat and dismiss the ‘demons in the pitch’ factor. Amla himself got out to a terrible misjudgement, being cleaned up by Ravindra Jadeja in the second innings: he let go a straight one to middle and leg stump, a moment he described as “brain-freeze”. ALSO READ: Ravichandran Ashwin: Differentiating factor between Indian and South Africa
In the past we have seen visiting teams often moaning about conditions but Amla, in the press conference, chose to speak about South Africa’s strategy and the possible mistakes that they made. That shuts the pitch debate and kudos to Hashim for that. There is a reason that South Africa have been the most universally popular travellers in world cricket in recent past. ALSO READ: Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra: A throwback to an older era of Indian cricket
His counterpart Virat Kohli, too, dismissed the pitch talk at the press conference after bagging his maiden Test victory in the country: “If you are an international cricketer then you have to use that ability and apply it if you see the dismissal, then you won’t find any dismissal where the ball has hit the batsman’s glove or witnessed a square turn. There were edges and it were the mistakes of the batsmen. The wicket did not have much of a role in that.” ALSO READ: Ravindra Jadeja’s all-round show vs South Africa in 1st Test at Mohali a shot in the arm for his Test career
India were slightly more accustomed to the surroundings. Since they had a better bowling attack for this condition, they won it. India’s oppositions have prepared tracks suiting their strengths when the India have toured (Kingsmead, 1996-97, Headingley, 2002, both pitches in New Zealand, 2002-03, and Lord’s, 2014, are examples).
Having said that, it doesn’t mean any team official can show extreme displeasure to any particular pitch provided to them. The recent Wankhede pitch controversy where Indian team director Ravi Shastri allegedly abused curator Sudhir Naik over displeasure on this pitch leaves a bitter taste and like Kohli said as international cricketer one has to use the “ability and apply it”. ALSO READ: India vs South Africa 2015, 1st Test at Mohali: 5 reasons the hosts triumphed
No one complained when Mitchell Johnson hunted for English heads at The Gabba. Remember Boxing Day Test, 2013, where India were greeted with a green top at Kingsmead after they had put up a brave show at a more sporting track at New Wanderers? Perhaps it’s time for foreign press and pundits to understand that apart from seam, swing and bounce, there is also an art — albeit a less glamorous one — called ‘spin’; there should also be wickets supporting men who master the latter art.
Kudos to Mohali-pitch: Spins or no spin, bounce or seam, what’s important is a sporting wicket that holds up for five days and ensures a result. In the modern age of limited-overs cricket where we also are witnessing former Test legends taking up Twenty20, where does Test cricket go?
Where at one end we see fans buying tickets worth a couple of thousands to ensure ODI tickets, despite a few hundred bucks Test cricket is played in front of near-empty stands. Apart from innovations like day-night Tests, another extremely crucial aspect to help build popularity of the longest, and purest version of the sport is result-oriented wickets. Mohali certainly was.
Tests that end in results are good advertisement for the game; though the Mohali Test lasted less than three days, excitement was aplenty. That’s what you play for. Teams not lasting all five days can also be attributed to changing trends of the sport. The limited-overs overkill has resulted in a batsman’s daredevil approach (not that it is a bad thing), which can be again becomes the reason for quick fall of wickets.
All around the world, barring some dead, placid tracks, it is a common spectacle to see Tests end by four days. Take an example of Shikhar Dhawan’s dismissal in the first innings where he flashed hard outside off-stump in the second over of the Test despite not being in good touch; compare that to an opener’s approach a decade back, who would have probably left the ball alone to get more used to the surface; and you will know where I am coming from.
I admit the track helped spin. We saw batsmen getting bamboozled by spinners. At the same time Murali Vijay (75 and 47) and Cheteshwar Pujara (31 and 77) made batting look reasonably easy. It is more about application than anything else.
Daljit Singh and co. did an excellent job in preparing a result-oriented track. For Test cricket to sustain we need more of this irrespective of its playing nature.
(Suvajit Mustafi consumes cricket for lunch, fiction for dinner and munches numerous other snacks throughout the day. Yes, a jack of several trades, all Suvajit dreamt of was being India’s World Cup winning skipper but ended up being a sports writer, author, screenwriter, director, copywriter, graphic designer, sports marketer , strategist, entrepreneur, philosopher and traveller. Donning so many hats, it’s cricket which gives him the ultimate high and where he finds solace. He can be followed at @RibsGully and rivu7)
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