Indians thrilled with slow Sydney pitch
INDIA has declared the Sydney Showground wicket will give it an advantage over Australia in Friday night’s Women’s Twenty20 World Cup opener.
Defending champions and world No.1 Australia heads into the tournament as favourites, with the country hosting the global T20 event for the first time. However, the Showgrounds could feel like anything but home come Friday. A boom in Indian ticket sales is expected to create a 50-50 split in support, with organisers hopeful of a sellout at the 22,000-seat stadium.
But it’s on the pitch that India expects even more of an advantage.
The Homebush wicket is regarded as one of the slowest wickets in the tournament, where spinners have been particularly effective in recent Big Bash seasons. That could assist an Indian team brought up on low and slow spinning wickets, with captain Harmanpreet Kaur having also had the Showgrounds as her home at Sydney Thunder.
“Yes definitely India],” Kaur said.
“That wicket is quite similar to Indian wickets and I hope that we will be able to take that advantage and do what we want to do as a team. We are looking really positively at that.” it will [help
India will have finger spinners Deepti Sharma and Radha Yadav at their disposal, and are both considered among the world’s best.
Australia could still have its own weapons if the Showgrounds wicket does spin.
Jess Jonassen is the world’s No.1-ranked one-day bowler and took 5-12 against India in a tri-series final just last week.
But still, India knows its advantage lies on slower wickets rather than the more traditional pace and bounce usually on show in Australia.
They were bounced out by the Aussies on the hard and fast Manuka Oval deck a fortnight ago.
On the more even wickets in Melbourne the visitors recorded a win over the Aussies before pushing them in a close loss in the tri-series final. “When you get extra bounce you are definitely going to get more favour into the other teams,” Kaur said.