Gwalior pitch promises run feast

Gwalior:

In what would come as music to the ears of swashbucklers like Virender Sehwag, curators at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium have promised a "batting paradise" for the second India-South Africa ODI on Wednesday.

India have already taken a 1-0 lead in the three-match series after winning by one run in a thriller in Jaipur last night.

Gwalior Division Cricket Association (GDCA) curator Ajay Sahasrabuddhe today said a tried and tested strip, re-laid about two years back, will be used for the match.

"This pitch was re-laid in March 2008 and a lot of domestic matches have been played here. We have hosted Under-22 matches, Duleep Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy matches here in the past two years and the strip is really good for batting. We are sure that we will see a high scoring game. It is a 300-plus pitch," Sahasrabuddhe told PTI while the finishing touches were being given to the ground for the match.

Samander Singh Chouhan, the chief curator of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association, who supervised the preparation of the pitch said the toss would be hardly of any significance on a belter like this.

"We are trying that it (pitch) remains the same for 100 overs. I don't think toss would be that crucial although it may help spinners during the second innings but not much," Chouhan said.

"In the coastal areas, the batting becomes difficult in the second innings but here the weather is good. So, toss will be almost irrelevant here," added Sahasrabuddhe.

The curators also said that dew would not be a factor.

"We will use a spray called APSA 80 which keeps the grass dry after spraying. It was successful in Yesterday's match at Jaipur, so we will also use it here for the same purpose," the GDCA curator said.

Sahasrabuddhe said the tinge of grass on the surface would hardly be of any concern.

"The grass is not much long. It's short and we have rolled the pitch well. And the cracks may be there but the soil is such that it won't open up and stay same," he said.

"Everybody wants to see fours and sixes. Nobody wants an innings to fold up in one-and-half-hour. One-day cricket is all about runs. Hence the batting pitch," Sahasrabuddhe added.

Out of the 11 one-dayers held here, India have played nine and won seven of them. The last time an ODI was played here was in November 2007 when India beat arch-rival Pakistan while chasing.