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The opening two balls of the chase reflected the circumstances of the 2024 T20 World Cup’s first semi-final. Almost rolling along the ground, the first ball was followed by another that reared off at a similar length. Spectators criticised the Brian Lara Cricket Academy field harshly, but players had to be careful not to appear to be supporting one side or downplaying their accomplishments, depending on whose side they were in. They nevertheless came to an unfavourable conclusion about it.
“I don’t want to get myself into trouble and I don’t want to come across as bitter or it being a case of sour grapes,” Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott said when asked what he made of the pitch, “but that’s not the pitch that you want to have a match, a semi-final of a World Cup, on plain and simple. It should be a fair contest. I’m not saying it should be flat completely with no spin and no seam movement, but I’m saying you shouldn’t have batsmen worrying about going forward and the ball flying over their head. You should be confident in your foot movement and being able to hit through the line or use your skills.
“T20 is about attacking and about scoring runs and taking wickets, not looking to survive. If the opposition bowled well and got to a position where they bowled very, very well and it’s through skill, then that’s fine and then it’s about adapting to that. But once the ball starts misbehaving and rolling… if we had bowled as straight as South Africa had, I think you would have seen a very interesting second half as well. South Africa bowled well, used the conditions, and showed our boys what it’s capable of. But it just didn’t go our way tonight.”
Whether it was the heavy spin in Kingstown, the unproven and ill-prepared drop-ins in New York, or this beast with significant uneven bounce and seam movement, South Africa has played under untrustworthy conditions the entire time. The same question was posed to South Africa’s captain, Aiden Markram.
“Yeah, I mean T20 cricket as a whole, you want entertainment,” Markram said. “The wickets that we’ve had throughout the competition have been pretty challenging. Tonight’s wicket was pretty challenging once again. It’s hard to say that a wicket is not good because it can’t just always be a batter’s game, but I think if we reflect back on this wicket, we’ll probably be pretty happy that we’re not playing here again.”
You can tell something is awry when the winning team sounds like it’s emerged from a round of Russian roulette unscathed and is eager to get out of town. Speaking on ESPNcricinfo’s analysis programme Timeout, Tom Moody stated that this track was unfit for any cricket match, much less a World Cup semifinal.
I don’t think you would want to see [this kind of a pitch] in any game,” Moody said. “You want a fair contest between bat and ball, and I’m not advocating we need to have surfaces for 200-plus but for one, you need consistent bounce. That’s the most important thing. Any batter will hold their hand up and say that’s the most important thing. If you’ve got one ball that’s hitting the toe of your bat [and] one that you’re feeling you’re going to punch with your gloves [from] the same length, that is a very difficult challenge to combat.”
In past World Cup games, the Brian Lara Cricket Academy track has yielded scores of 40 all out, 78 all out, and 95 all out. The only respectable match that has been feasible was when West Indies defeated 149 by a tiny margin; nevertheless, they were 30 for 5 at one point during that game.
One of the most iconic cricket grounds in the world, Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain, is located in Trinidad; nonetheless, it has never hosted a World Cup match, losing to this more recent, essentially untested ground that hosted men’s international cricket for the first time less than two years ago.