da casino： Kanpur has a lot to thank Ahmedabad for. Had India come into this match leading the series, a draw would have been as likely as the haze in the Kanpur winter
da bet esporte： Sidharth Monga in Kanpur10-Apr-2008
Harbhajan Singh, who wasn’t too pleased with the track in Ahmedabad, takes a look at the surface to be used at Green Park © AFP
Pitch reading is a hazardous occupation at the best of times. But from the look of it, the surface at the Green Park stadium in Kanpur is designed to yield a result. The question, however, is how long the match will last. One-down in the series, India would have hoped for a turner, and South Africa would have expected it. But neither team would have quite bargained for what they have got.Greame Smith has described it as the least-prepared pitch he has seen in his playing career, a view shared by a senior Indian player who said it was unlike anything he had seen.Underprepared, dry, and cracking already, there is no telling what this pitch might do. Let alone spin, it might make any bowling dangerous to face. While Tests like the one in Mumbaiagainst Australia in 2004-05 are fascinating once in a while, especiallywhen quality batsmen like Jacques Kallis and VVS Laxman negate extremelydifficult conditions, this one might not be just a regular crumbler but onewith completely unpredictable bounce. And that might not necessarily be advantage India: South African pacemen can be deadly too.The ball might dart around, bounce unevenly, spin alarmingly; no-one reallyknows. And both the camps are concerned with the wicket. Just after India’scapitulation ended in Ahmedabad, reportsstarted pouring in that they had already stopped watering the track at Green Park, which turned out to be close to the truth [there hasn’t beenany heavy watering for the last four-five days]. This is also the first Test in Kanpur being played in summer [all the other 19 have been playedbetween November and February]. As a result the wicket is flirting with theline that separates an average crumbler from a substandard wicket.Shiv Kumar, the curator, promised a “wicket that will surely produce aresult and assist spin”. Daljit Singh, who’s part of the BCCI’s ground andpitches committee, chose to call it – perhaps for novelty’s sake – a”sporting track”.This one looks nothing like it. Mickey Arthur, the South Africa coach, wasperhaps closer to the actual description. “The wicket will go through thetop very early, but we are prepared for it,” Arthur said. Graeme Smith jokedat the pre-match press conference that it had already started cracking a daybefore the game, leave alone the third and fourth day. Kumar says it will turn from day three onwards, but South Africa expect it to start breaking anytime after the first ball is bowled.Ever since India suffered an innings defeat at the hands of West Indies in1983, Kanpur has not produced atrack that has favoured fast bowling. It has mostly been a slow turner, likethe one in 2004, something Kumar says will not happen this time, believing the dry heat will ensure it breaks up in due time.And if the Green Park track does crumble – and that’s an important “if”because these are all predictions that can go wrong – it will be because ofa situation India have been forced into. Their fast bowlers have taken atotal of three wickets in the series so far. Ishant Sharma missed both thoseTests, RP Singh has looked completely out of sorts, and Sreesanth hasn’tgiven South Africa sleepless nights either. A genuine sporting track, asAhmedabad was, will definitely not suit India, given the form their pacebowlers are in. Being 1-0 down in the series, they can’t afford aChennai-like sleeping beauty either. As a result they have put all theireggs in the spin basket, perhaps the only basket they had.The hype and anticipation built around the pitch is not less than the one inPerth created earlier thisyear when Adam Gilchrist was reportedly not sure how far was too far whenkeeping to Shaun Tait. Perth did not turn out to be the terror itpromised to, Green Park just might.