Collaged picture : bcci
pic and tv grab.
Experienced Ian
Gould and Aleem Dar are the Umpires - Michael Gough is the TV Umpire and Andy
Pycroft is the match referee. It was drizzling too as day 3 was halted rather
abruptly and there are apprehensions that they are discussing about the
deteriorating pitch and may call it a dangerous pitch, suggesting abandonment.
The real story
could be far different - India have set South Africa an improbable 241 to win
on what is described as a treacherous
Wanderers pitch. South Africa had to bat for about 65 minutes ! The 55-run partnership
between Ajinkya Rahane and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, both of whom were dropped in the
last Test, made India's lead a formidable one, and the cherry on the cake came
through a cameo from Mohammed Shami, who scored 27 off 28 balls. He hit the
first six of the match, and soon followed it up with another, clattering Kagiso
Rabada over wide mid-on. For the first time in the match, the second new ball
was called for but used for only one ball.
The pitch did have
un even bounce. With a skillful SA attack
bouncing it short, Indian batters did have tough time, taking some body
blows. Kohli, Rahane and Vijay - and
later Bhuvneshwar Kumar - showed exceptional courage, skill and match awareness. In the morning, KL Rahul and Cheteshwar
Pujara fell cheaply threatening a debacle.
Vijay though scored only 25 did a
fine job seeing off the threat for long. Vijay wore five blows, Kohli one in
that session. However, the judgment didn't waver. The Indian tail contributed and the target of
241 looks so menacing now.
Bhuvneswar Kumar
and Shami opened the attack. Shami had
them hopping in – particularly Elgar and got rid of Markram. Bumrah had bowled just 3 deliveries when play
was stopped. The injury caused some talk
on the status of the pitch :
"Two out of
100 [is my rating for the pitch]. It's a s**t pitch. You can interpret that.
They should have called it off when Vijay got hit. This is not a cricket pitch,
this is dangerous. Call it off, forget it. You can't play cricket on that. I
have no idea what has gone wrong but I know it's not a good cricket pitch. The
last time I saw something like this, the match was abandoned - in Jamaica 1998,
and it didn't even last this long." Michael Holding, the former West Indies
fast bowler and television commentator present at the Wanderers Test.
While
all tend to blame the pitch, something is grossly missed. Sunil Gavaskar was quick to point out that,
that particular Bumrah delivery had been pitched pretty short - 8.5
metres from the base of the stumps; so not a brute of delivery but regular
short pitched and perhaps Elgar’s technique and judgment was not good enough. Gavaskar
also queried that what would have happened if the same blow would have been
received by an Indian batsman – perhaps the World would have drawn knives to
inflict on the batter that Indians do not play rising deliveries well. Sad, double standards and if the match were
to be abandoned, very sad – for this ball was a short one and not a brute one
flying off good length !!!
In Jan 1998, the first
Test between West Indies and England was abandoned because of a dangerous pitch at Sabina Park. On that day, it took less than
an hour's play at Sabina Park before the test was abandoned because of a
substandard pitch. In a move unprecedented in Test cricket's 122-year history,
the umpires brought the players off the field. As the sole arbiters of what
happens on the field, the decision was theirs, though it had the backing of
both captains as well as a those of England's battered batsmen. When play was
halted, immediately after Graham Thorpe had been struck another nasty blow to
the hand, England were reeling at 17 for 3, though the bruise count was much
higher. In fact the England physio, Wayne Morton, made six appearances on the
field in order to administer his cold spray to throbbing fingers and arms. Windies were captained by Brian Lara and had
Ian Bishop, Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, N McLean as bowlers. The Umpires were S A Bucknor (WI) and S Venkataraghavan (Ind).
Memory drifts back
to that Chepauk test in 1979 when Dhiraj Parsana and Chang made their
debuts. Chang had a nasty blow off
Karsan Ghavri delivery and was left bleeding.
Chasing a smaller target of 126, the ball was flying. Dilip Vengsarkar was subjected to a barrage
of short pitched ones by Stuart Clarke and Norbert Philip. When hit, he threw his bat and threatened to
walk out ! – India won that test, Viswanath, Gaekward and Kapil Dev making some
good runs as India lost 7 wickets making 126. .. .. ~ and some may remember
that a tall leg-spinner Modireddy Venkat
Narasimha Rao from Hyderabad played replacing legendary Bhagwat Chandrasekar.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
26th Jan
2018.
