Are The Colombo-like Pitches Any Good For Test Cricket?
The second Test match between http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 looks heading to a draw. This should suit both the sides, given that the Indians know that they hardly had the arsenal to get the better of Sri Lanka on this track, and the Lankans are already 1-0 up and will be happy to preserve that lead going into the final Test.
The problem is, that the result does not suit the cricket fans at large. Already, one is in the day and age where T20 cricket has begun overtaking the other formats of the game in terms of popularity and excitement. Games like these, which not only end in draws, but highly boring, and hopelessly one-sided – in favour of the batsmen – draws can only augur well for the quick demise of the Test match format.
This brings us to a question, what exactly constitutes an interesting Test match? It is not an absolute given that all result-oriented games will be interesting – even drawn games like the one at Old Trafford in Manchester in 2005 between http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 and England could ensure enough thrill for the spectators to keep coming back for more.
A proper definition of an interesting game is the one which has a bit of something for everybody involved – the batsmen, pace bowlers and the spinners. The ideal track starts off with some assistance for the pace bowlers, and goes on to help the batsmen in the latter half of the second day and the whole of the third, before the spinners began to weave their magic on the last couple. And unfortunately for the sport of cricket, that is a rarity. The balance between assisting the batsmen and bowler is conspicuous by its absence in most of the games played in the sub-continent, and each time there is a Test match like the one between India and Sri Lanka at Colombo, the interest gets further eroded.
The sub-continent pitches have been majorly responsible for this poor showing. Apart from the last Test series between India and South Africa, that was played in India, one has already seen the number of times a side has scored a 500-plus total – a clear indication of the manner in which, the life of a quick bowler is akin to that of a chicken on an open highway.
The Sri Lankan tracks were showing signs of improvement in recent times, but this series would have undone most of the work, whereas the less said the better about http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755. It has been some time since a game was played in Pakistan, but the last series had seen all three completed innings in the series end up with 600-plus totals. Needless to say, such games invariably end in draws.
In December 2009, there was an ODI that was played in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Delhi-c780 between India and Sri Lanka. The game had to be abandoned by the match referee, because the umpires and the two teams deemed the pitch to be very dangerous for the batsmen. The reason? The ball spat and hit the batsmen on some of the deliveries and it was difficult to score on such pitches.
If the track at the Kotla could be pronounced as dangerous for the batting team, how is it that these 600-plus pitches are never thought about as unsafe for the bowlers? After all, the bowlers require much more from their bodies to last a career than the batsmen, and with the tracks going so flat, it will be a wonder if cricket ever produced the likes of Muthiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne or http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Anil-Kumble-c44737, let alone the quicker guys.
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