‘Hybrid’ pitches have helped improve the practice facilities at Dharamshala
Hardik Pandya, the seasoned all-rounder, has had a turbulent Indian Premier League season upon his return to the Mumbai Indians, while Piyush Chawla, the veteran leg-spinner, has gone under the radar despite being the second
Soon after the ODI World Cup got over last year, the o§cials at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) had a discussion with the players on how to improve the practice facilities.
The players stated that with too much cricket happening throughout the year, there was quite a bit of wear and tear on the practice pitches, which needed urgent attention.
Led by Indian Premier League’s Governing Council chairman Arun Dhumal, the HPCA decided to instal four hybrid pitches on the square of the scenic venue at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamshala, and SISGrass, a UK-based synthetic turf manufacturer, was highest wicket-taker in IPL history.
However, the duo turned up the heat on Sunrisers Hyderabad on Monday. They each picked up three wickets to sti e a dangerous batting line-up, helping the hosts restrict the opposition to 173 for eight.
From the moment the coin landed in his favour, captain Hardik hardly put a foot wrong in the rst half of the game. Chawla, tasked with the project.
Under the guidance of former England international Paul Taylor, his team worked round the clock from the second week of March this year and injected ve per cent synthetic bres into the natural surface too, was instrumental in triggering the SRH collapse in the middle overs.
Just when Travis Head — who was fortunate to have survived twice o debutant Anshul Kamboj — and Nitish Kumar Reddy were getting into top gear, Chawla enticed Head into a false stroke.
In the next over, Hardik induced a miscue from Nitish with a rising delivery. Chawla then undid Heinrich Klaasen — arguably to ensure the pitches were stronger and ready before the Indian Premier League.
“During a game, your centre wicket is always protected, but the load is high on the side wickets that are used for practice sessions. the best batter against spin in the T20 arena — with a quicker one. SRH had lost three wickets in 11 balls for just six runs, slumping to 96 for ve in the 13th over.
Double strike
In the 16th over, Hardik nished his quota with a double strike, dismissing allrounders Shahbaz Ahmed and Marco Jansen. Chawla then wrapped up his four overs with a trademark googly that trapped Abdul
So, our objective was to provide good practice wickets to the teams and that’s why we decided to use this technology,” Dhumal told The Hindu on Monday.
“The soil binding remains the same, the quality of the grass improves and
Samad in front of the stumps.
Had it not been for Sunrisers captain Pat Cummins’ pyrotechnics at the death, the visiting team would have struggled to cross the 150-run mark.
Head was fortunate to survive some accurate bowling from the MI pacers. Kamboj should have claimed him as his maiden the wickets are better. With this, we can take care of any wear and tear on the surface. For now, we have used this technology only for practice pitches and if and when the ICC gives approval for it to be used in international games, we will react accordingly,” he said.
The players from Punjab Kings and Chennai Super Kings had long sessions over the last few days and according to Dhumal, the players were happy with the practice pitches and ‘did not even realise that there is ve per cent bre injected into it’.
According to Taylor, “We use polyethylene monolament bre and the fundamental thing that is dierent about our pitch, is that it’s still 95 percent a natural turf surface.”
IPL scalp, not once but twice.
After crashing into the o-stump and celebrating a wicket, Kamboj was disappointed to realise he had overstepped.
Soon afterwards, Nuwan Thushara made a mess of a straightforward chance at deep third o Kamboj to oer the in-form Head another reprieve.