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South Africa react to the first look of Guwahati pitch after pressure increases on BCCI curators
Proteas bowling coach Piet Botha reacted to an early look at the pitch at the ACA Stadium in Guwahati, with a big focus on the surface.
The surface and pitch at the Barsapara Stadium in Guwahati might be the most inspected piece of turf in India this weekend, after the debacle at Eden Gardens at Kolkata has forced pressure onto the curators to put together a sporting wicket for the second India vs South Africa Test match.
After the first Test was wrapped up in less than three days with minimal run-scoring, demands have been endless for a pitch that allows five days of Test cricket. It has been the singular talking point after Simon Harmer and Keshav Maharaj wreaked havoc in Kolkata.
Having had an early look at the pitch two days before the start of the match, Proteas bowling coach Piet Botha spoke about what to expect in Guwahati in a media interaction before the contest.
"As far as the pitch is concerned, obviously I had a look at it this morning; it's still two days to go. So it's difficult to predict if they will actually shave off more grass or not. That will obviously make a difference," explained Botha.
‘If the track is like the one in Kolkata…’
"But what we have heard is that it seems to be a good batting track up front, and spin comes into the picture late. But we'll have to wait and see, maybe it starts earlier, and what the previous Test turned out to be," he continued.
The expectation for the pitch is one that will be a true batting surface for the first portion of the innings, before deteriorating in a sustained manner to bring the spinners into play later in the match. Asked to reflect on what the decision at the toss might be, Botha explained how a true batting surface would prompt the Proteas to bat first – but that it wouldn’t matter on a Kolkata-like surface.
"If the wicket is good to bat on, then batting first is a good option, but if the track is like the one in Kolkata, then it hardly matters. If the ball starts turning from day one, sometimes it (batting first) doesn't really play a role, because it becomes a low-scoring game, like the last one… [toss] doesn't play as big a role," said Botha.
India will be hungry to get the result to tie up the series, and for that, they will want a surface which allows the talented batting and bowling unit to speak for themselves, rather than influenced and decided by the surface they play on.
