Smith terms Chepauk wicket as 'under-prepared'
Rival captains Graeme Smith and Elton Chigumbura termed that the wicket at the Chepauk was "under-prepared" and hoped that the wickets are perhaps prepared better for the World Cup tournament proper.
- Press Trust of India
- Updated: February 12, 2011 11:01 PM IST
Rival captains Graeme Smith and Elton Chigumbura termed that the wicket at the Chepauk was "under-prepared" and hoped that the wickets are perhaps prepared better for the World Cup tournament proper.
"The wicket was pretty slow and dead. Yet, Morne Morkel, who bowled well in in South Africa had carried the form here. I was standing in the slips and I must say that he manage to hit the deck well," he said.
Explaining the conditions on Saturday, Smith said, "You can get it tricky. The wickets probably will get slower and slower. Tonight there were a few things. There was quite a lot of dew and it is a bit disappointing on that factor when lot of day-night games are played in this conditions."
"I feel the wickets are probably better prepared for the World Cup proper as coming to those games the wickets will give a lot more tension."
Meanwhile, South Africa's Pakistan-born leg spinner Imran Tahir came in for praise for the rival captains as well as Zimbabwean coach Alan Butcher.
It was not a surprise therefore when South African captain Graeme Smith and rival captain Elton Chigumbura showered accolades on Tahir for his effort of 3/35. "I have seen quite a lot of Tahir in English county. I know he is a quality bowler. I am sure he will have an impact on the World Cup competition," former England Test batsman Butcher told the mediapersons.
Expressing happiness over Tahir's performance, Smith stated, "The wicket is little bit underprepared. It was Imran's day. Tahir is naturally a tough guy perhaps he was little bit tense today. He started to be more consistent in length and was more confidence on what he was doing. For me it is nice to see a guy making good use of the opportunity. He gave himself a platform to bowl on now."
Smith also praised the other slow bowlers in the side.
"All our spinners bowled well. There is good competition in the squad. This is a big positive as there are many players who are challenging each other for a place in the XI.
"We got options and it all boils down to how we are going to select the XI based on the type of wickets that we would be playing. We cannot play everybody and it is more difficult to pick the right combinations," Smith said when questioned on what will be his likely XI for the tournament.
When a scribe questioned as to how your batsmen were able to make big runs when they chased, Smith said, "It was a good to bat on against spinners but it was rather slow. I feel it will not be a tricky situation during the World Cup."
Talking about experienced all-rounder, Jacques Kallis not being used in bowling, Smith said, "As I had said earlier, we do not want to slide back to the player he was a couple of weeks ago. We considered that we must bring him slowly. We still need to preserve him for bowling as we need him for another six weeks."
Meanwhile, Chigumbura said they had a good start through Brendan Taylor, who played well and unfortunately after that we did not have good partnership.
"Today we were expecting turn. But It wasn't turning. So we ended playing the wrong line. I am sure guys will adapt quickly. I am sure when you go to different grounds there may be turn. It is a matter of adapting quickly," he said.