Visakhapatnam to roll out batting beauty

VISAKHAPATNAM: As MS Dhoni and Kane Williamson arrive for their practice sessions at the ACA-VDCA Stadium ahead of the fifth and series-deciding ODI, uppermost on their minds will be how the pitch behaves.

The Kiwis have proved again that they are adept at reading the conditions after opting for three spinners on the slow Ranchi wicket in the fourth ODI. Their astute understanding of surfaces in India played a major role in helping them progress to the World T20 semifinal.

The pitch here has been under the scanner since Assam coach Sunil Joshi’s tweet during their Rajasthan, which ended in three days. Assam were bowled out for 69 in their second innings to lose by an innings and eight runs.

There were reports that the but the BCCI sent senior curator K Sriram to assist the local expert K Nagamalliah in preparing the wicket. The venue will also make its Test debut in the

While one pitch has been completely re-laid, there’s been some patch work done on others, informed Nagamalliah. Going by the last two Ranji matches played here, the wicket has assisted pacers more.

Nagamalliah though predicted a batting paradise on Saturday. “The surface is hard. We have got adequate time to prepare the wicket, and I’m expecting at least 280 300 on

The curator blamed incessant rain for hampering preparations at the start of the Ranji season “For 21 days we had non-stop rain We hardly got any scope to pre pare the wicket for the first match of the season. We haven’t used the re-laid wicket at all because of the weather,” said Nagamalliah who was a long-distance runner for Andhra Pradesh.

Dew might play a role if there are no clouds. However, till Thursday, dark clouds had the Andhra Cricket Association offi cials on their toes. The ODI will be played on the centre wicket, but it won’t be a prelude to the way a Test-match wicket is prepared “The Test-match wicket will be a fresh one. The conditions won’t be the same as a 50 over match ”

WHILE ONE PITCH HAS BEEN COMPLETELY RE-LAID, THERE’S BEEN SOME PATCH WORK DONE ON OTHERS

RAVI KUMAR/HT FILE Virat Kohli made 154* in Mohali to give India a 2-1 lead in the ODI series.

HT The ground where the fifth ODI will take place, at Visakhapatnam.