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| March 14, 2003 | Friday | Muharram 10, 1424 |
Groundstaff begin work on dicey pitch
PORT ELIZABETH, March 13: A team of pitch experts was on Thursday working to repair the slow St George’s Park wicket here to provide a feast of runs in next week’s World Cup semifinal.
The review of the pitch, which hosts the semifinal on Tuesday, follows criticism from Australian captain Ricky Ponting after the defending champions escaped defeat twice against England and then New Zealand on the bowler-friendly surface.
The review is being carried out by Hilbert Smit, chairman of the South African groundsmen’s association, and Brian Basson, the South African cricket board’s director of cricket operations.
They are assisted by Adrian Carter, the groundsman at the venue, and Neil Tainton, a World Cup consultant on wickets, in a bid to prepare a good batting surface.
“I don’t want Hilbert to help prepare St George’s Park as if it was Centurion Park because conditions are different,” Carter told the Sapa news agency.
“But I’ll be calling on his expertise and advice to see if we can get a bit more pace out of the surface.”
Carter dismissed the wide-held belief that that the pitch at the St George’s Park had always played low and slow.
“Last year’s match between South Africa and the Aussies produced in excess of 650 runs, so let’s hope it’s another belter on Tuesday,” he said.
It was on the same wicket last year that Pakistan posted their highest one-day score of 335-6 against South Africa.
The South African cricket board’s Basson said the panel would find ways to produce a good surface.
“We did not believe that the ball was coming onto the bat and induce the players to play what we believe were good cricketing shots,” he said.
“Sometimes when sides go out for low scores the first thing they do is look at the groundsman and perhaps the umpire.”
Australia are due to play their semifinal at the St George’s Park against either New Zealand or Sri Lanka.
India will feature in the second semifinal against Kenya under the Kingsmead lights in Durban next Thursday after their request to make it a day game was rejected.
Australia squeezed out a narrow two-wicket win over England and were then rocked by Kiwi paceman Shane Bond on Tuesday as he grabbed 6-23 on the damp wicket.
Despite Australia’s two low-scoring games, a third match at the same venue produced a lot of runs with England scoring 272 against Namibia before the minnows replied with 217-9.
“The wicket was better than it was for the last game,” Ponting said after his team stumbled to 84-7 before coming from behind to score a 96-run win over the Kiwis.
“It was a bit damp at the start, then it played a little bit better but still I don’t think it’s a great one-day wicket.”—AFP
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