Seddon Park all ready and waiting
Two days out from the second test between the Black Caps and the West Indies, and the Seddon Park pitch sits under cover – not because of rain, but because the Hamilton hot spell has it in danger of over-cooking.
It’s a nice change for groundsman Karl Johnson, who’s a much happier chap nearly nine months on from the last test at the venue – where wet weather disrupted the buildup, then rain ruined New Zealand’s chances of a final-day series-squaring victory against South Africa.
As Johnson notes, it’s better to be ready early than caught short. It’s impressive from him and his team, considering they also operate FMG Stadium Waikato down the road – where they’ve had Rugby League World Cup duty, and the Hamilton Sevens is looming – in between Plunket Shield matches at Seddon.
But despite the deck being advanced in preparation, don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s not green - the hue on show when Johnson peeled back the covers for Black Caps coach Mike Hesson to have a gander and a yak on Thursday afternoon, as his side look to whitewash the Windies after their impressive innings and 67-run win in the first test in Wellington.
‘‘Asian teams and even the West Indians, they see these pitches and they wonder whether our mowers are broken down,’’ Johnson said, in reference to New Zealand pitches now starting out green to provide some balance between bat and ball, because they don’t tend break up later in the piece.
‘‘People think they’re going to seam round, but they don’t. We run ryegrass on them, and that assists the pace of the ball, when it kisses off.
‘‘At this stage I’ve got it to where I need it to be, and I don’t want to add any water to it now. It’s a bit of a holding pattern at the moment. Tomorrow It’ll probably get a sneaky little roll early in the morning, because if I roll during the heat of the day it can actually change the colour of the grass really quick.’’
This test will mark a return to the Patumahoe clay – which has generally been the go-to for longerform cricket at Seddon, providing more pace and bounce than the Waikari (which is now unavailable to source so is being topdressed with Kakanui) used for white-ball formats, which was requested by New Zealand Cricket at the start of last season for the last test here, effectively to nullify the Proteas’ pace attack.
Johnson said this wicket may provide some variable bounce later in the piece, and he’d be happy to see it. He doesn’t think spin will play a big role, as the Windies ponder a replacement for suspended skipper Jason Holder and could look to leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo, who took 13 wickets in the two-test series in Zimbabwe in October.