April 22, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 15, 1429

KOLKATA, April 21: Vangipurappu Laxman has termed the Eden Gardens pitch on which his Deccan Chargers lost their IPL opener against the Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday “shocking” and said the power failure towards the end of the match contributed to the defeat as it affected the players’ concentration.

“It was not a good pitch for any form of the game. It was a shocking wicket,” said the star Indian batsman after Hyderabad were shot out for 110 on a track that provided a lot of assistance to both seamers and spinners. “In the Twenty20 format you expect high scores. Though the match became exciting in the end, it was tough for the batsmen to go for shots.”

Ricky Ponting later revealed that the curator had apologised to both the teams at the end of the match.

“It was a shocker for all of us,” he said in a television interview, “but the curator apologised to both the teams later. Hopefully it will be a better surface when we’re out here next.”

After the first two days of the IPL was dominated by the bat, Eden Gardens provided a bowler-friendly surface.

It has everything from extremely variable bounce — the first ball Laxman faced kept low while the third jumped viciously from a length to crash into his gloves — and big turn as Andrew Symonds found out when a Mohammad Hafeez delivery landed well outside off and spun past him down the leg side. —Agencies