In the aftermath of the low-scoring match Sri Lanka vs South Africa, recently, many veteran cricketers or experts have questioned the ICC for New York’s Nassau County’s pitch, where 157 runs were scored between two teams within 35.3 overs.
Thus, recording a run-rate of 4.4. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka choosing to bat first, folded in just 77 runs in 19.1 overs, courtesy Anrich Nortje’s economical spell.
Later, in second innings, south Africa also managed to chase the target within 16.2 overs with four wicket loss.
But what’s notable, south Africa team only managed to score only six boundaries.
However, witnessing this low-scoring match, many experts started raising questions over New York track, which showed signs of uneven bounce.
Former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan also described the pitch as ‘not ideal’, with former south african coach Prasanna Agoram echoing the same sentiments. Who labelled the pitch as ‘terrible’.
On all honesty this is a terrible pitch to host a T20 World Cup match.
— Prasanna (@prasannalara) June 3, 2024
Not an ideal pitch for t20 cricket.
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) June 3, 2024
In addition, Nassau County suffered from another problem, that was poor outfield. As former Indian cricketer Manoj Tiwary observed that how easily the ball was frequently losing pace whenever batters hit the ground.
Later, Tiwary also attacked ICC, for the poor conditions made by ICC, for an event like world cup.
‘I say it blatantly: This is unacceptable because if a batter hits a shot along the ground, the ball does not even travel, and that is because the amount of sand used is more. It will be difficult for teams to score runs. It is not possible to hit sixes consistently. You have to play some shots along the ground. You will get to see a lot more singles than doubles. This is unacceptable from the ICC because when there is a World Cup going on, and when you had time to prepare for it, they should have made a proper outfield as well.’ lashed out Tiwary.
Meanwhile, the venue is going to host more matches during the course of world cup, which include three of India’s matches- including match against Ireland on Wednesday.
