Pitch for test confounds expectations
Talk of a dustbowl at Seddon Park for this weekend’s third test appears to have been off the mark.
South African captain Faf du Plessis predicted there would be one 10 days ago, and his team had flown over a second spinner in preparation for a turner.
But as it turns out, all Dane Piedt might get to do is carry drinks.
When revealed yesterday, the pitch in Hamilton had plenty of grass cover, enough to make the gathered media wonder if they were in fact staring at the right strip.
After consulting with South African coach Russell Domingo, it turned out they were.
‘‘Everyone was saying it was going to be a dustbowl, but it doesn’t look like a dustbowl at the moment,’’ he said. ’’I know it’s three days out, but it looks a good wicket.’’
For groundsman Karl Johnson and his crew, that would have been music to their ears, with this the final act of a long, tough summer.
‘‘My crew have lived and breathed Seddon Park, and at times we’ve had to give them a map and a GPS to send them home, because they’ve been here for a lot of hours.’’
As for what they’ve produced this week, Johnson was happy to allay the South Africans’ fears.
‘‘It certainly won’t be a dustbowl, as it has been described,’’ he said.
‘‘We have had a lot of cricket on the rest of our wicket block, so we have obviously got some used strips. But the pitch that they’re going to play the match on has pretty good grass cover on it.’’
The block at Seddon Park consists of both Patumahoe and Waikari clay, with this match being played on the latter, which tends to be slower and more friendly to spinners, so there might be a role for Piedt yet.
It is clear the tourists’ perceptions of Hamilton have been shaded by the first ODI they played there, back on February 19, where they won a nailbiter by four wickets. Afterwards, AB de Villiers described the conditions as the toughest he had ever played in, referring to the amount of spin Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner were able to generate on a Patumahoe strip.
But if that has been lingering in their minds ever since, it has probably been misleading, the product of a rain-affected buildup.
‘‘That was an abnormal Seddon Park pitch,’’ said Johnson.
‘‘It sat under cover for so long, it spun damp - the pitch was still quite moist. So it’s unfair to say that’s what they’re going to get. The next game we had here was on Waikari, where Martin Guptill got his 180.
‘‘That very first game? That is not normal here.’’
Pitches are always a topic of discussion wherever cricket is being played, but it’s fair to say they’ve been under even more scrutiny than usual on this tour.
For the past five years, New Zealand strips have tended to be covered in grass, no matter the venue, and the toss-winning captain has had no hesitation in choosing to bowl, to the extent that it happened for a record 22 tests in a row.
That changed in Dunedin, where du Plessis chose to bat and the Black Caps dropped seamer Tim Southee for a second spinner. The pitches there and in Wellington were both a departure from the recent norm, with Mike Hesson admitting after the first test: ‘‘I don’t think ideally we want to play South Africa on a seamer-friendly surface’’.
As the man charged with producing the surface in Hamilton, Johnson hears all the talk, but says it mostly goes in one ear and out the other.
‘‘They’re the most talked about bit of real estate in New Zealand at times. It’s a three metre by 20 metre piece of turf that gets a huge amount of attention,’’ he said.