http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 tour of South Africa: Hilbert Smith has denied a green top in the first Test at Centurion
Hilbert Smith, the groundsman of SuperSport Park, Centurion has said that for the opening Test between http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 and India, he will prepare a track which would help bowlers in the opening session of the match.
"I'm definitely not going to prepare a pitch where the Test will be over within three days. But it will be a pitch that will definitely offer something for the bowlers on the first morning.”
Smith, the experienced curator of the Titans side said that he wants to prepare a track that would not favour the ‘win the toss and bat first’ myth.
"I want to prepare a pitch where it won't just be an automatic choice to bat if you win the toss," said the curator. "I want to see that first session or that first morning playing a big role, because it's then that there has to be something
for the bowlers, and the batsmen will have to stand strong to survive," he added further.
Smith said that though a pitch with a green top would favour the South Africa fast bowler to restrict the Indians to some meagre total but at the same he fears that the idea can hit back at him if Dhoni’s pacers get to exploit it first.
The curator said that since the prolific Indian batsmen are vulnerable against short pitched deliveries, the bowlers try to bowl at such a length that the ball ‘fly past the Indian batsman's ears’.
So a track with a tinge of green can help the South African bowlers a lot but Smith denied any possibility of green top saying that if the roles are reversed and Indian bowlers bowled out the Proteas line-up cheaply then he could be in the
line of fire, “Then they demand your head and everyone wants to know what went wrong," the SuperSport Park curator said on Wednesday.
SuperSport Park has been a great ally of the Proteas so far as the side has won 11 Tests of the total 15 played at the venue and lost only one while three of the Test matches ended in draws.
Smith also claimed that he has already received a guideline from the home coach Corrie van Zyl regarding the track for the opening Test which would be played in Centurion on 16th of December. The curator also said that the weather
condition of Centurion ahead of the Test will also play a key role in the final outlook of the track.
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