By IANS,
Kolkata: South African skipper Graeme Smith says his team has encountered vastly varying pitches in the cricket World Cup, and the experience was likely to stretch on as they take on Bangladesh in the last group league game in Dhaka Saturday.
However, he sees no problem in adapting to the varying tracks.
Referring to the Eden Gardens track Tuesday night when his side crushed Ireland by 131 runs to enter the quarterfinals, Smith said: “The wicket looked to be different to what we used to see at the Eden. It was free-flowing, a bit up and down.”
The two-paced strip saw some of the balls keeping low, and Collin Ingram saw his stumps shattered to a skidding delivery.
Smith said his side was confident that a score of around 250 would be a decent total at the park. In the end, the South Africans got 272/7 and then bowled out Ireland for 141.
Talking about Dhaka’s Sher-e-Bangla stadium, he said the soil would be different there.
“We have watched he games. The wicket hasn’t looked that free flowing,” he said.
He said his team has had to adapt to different surfaces in India also.
“Even in India, the surface is so different and so (are the) pitches in Nagpur and Chennai.”
South Africa played England in Chennai before clashing with India at Nagpur in Group B matches.
However, Smith was confident that his boys would have no problem in adapting fast to the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium pitch.