By Qaiser Mohammad Ali, IANS
Jaipur : With the home team having taken a 3-1 lead in the five match One-Day International series, the curator has prepared a “100 percent batting” pitch to encourage high scoring in the fifth and final India-Pakistan ODI here Sunday.
“It is a 100 percent batting pitch. We will continue to roll the pitch today (Saturday) and also tomorrow (Sunday) to make it look more brown that would suit batsmen,” Abdul Saeed told IANS, on the eve of the day-night encounter at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium.
“Everyone wants lots of runs in ODIs and that is what has been our aim too,” said Saeed, who is also a qualified cricket coach, associated with the Rajasthan Sports Council.
The pitch for Sunday’s tie was tested Oct 30 when the Rajasthan under-19 probables played a match. Since then no match has been played on it.
“That was the last match played on this pitch, and it provided good, encouraging bounce,” said the man who has been involved in preparing pitches for 15 international matches played here.
One problem that Saeed and his ground staff could face in the second innings of the match is the evening dew, but he is prepared to tackle this too.
“If dew falls, we will use APSA (All Purpose Spray Adjuvant) in the outfield to make it less effective. We would use the spray this evening and Sunday,” he said.
“But even if light cloud covers the sky, the dew would not affect the fielding side much,” he pointed out, backing a batting-oriented pitch in the lush green outfield that the players should relish fielding.