Feb. 13: ‘Under-prepared’, ‘slow’ and ‘dead’ was how South African captain Graeme Smith described the pitch at the refurbished M.A. Chidambaram Stadium where the Proteas strolled to an eight-wicket win against Zimbabwe in a cricket World Cup warm-up game on Saturday.
“The wicket was pretty slow and dead. Yet, Morne Morkel, who bowled well in Indian series back 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,” said Smith.
“The wickets probably will get slower and slower. Tonight, there were a few things. There was quite a lot of dew out in the atmosphere and it is a bit disappointing when a lot of day-night games are played in these conditions,” he added.
It was hardly a surprise that Zimbabwe opted to have their spinners open the bowling when the South Africans began their chase.
Smith heaped praise on rookie leg-spinner Imran Tahir, a Pakistani by birth who recently acquired South African citizenship. Tahir returned with a three-wicket haul in 8.5 overs and looked quite impressive given his relative inexperience.
“The wicket was a little bit under-prepared. It was Imran’s day. He is naturally a tough guy, but was perhaps little bit tense today. He started to be more consistent in length and was more confident on what he was doing. For me, it was nice to see the guy making good use of the opportunity. He gave himself a platform to bowl on now,” said Smith.