Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) President Sourav Ganguly pinned the blame on Team India and defended curator Sujan Mukherjee amid criticism surrounding the . The wicket has been a nightmare for batters.
The ball has gripped and turned, often keeping low or jumping off the surface, making batting extremely tough. This was one of the rare Tests where both teams failed to cross the 200-run mark in the innings. Only Temba Bavuma from South Africa managed to go past the fifty-run mark, taking South Africa to 153 in the third innings and setting a target of 124.
Ganguly said this is the kind of surface Team India wanted for the first Test. “The pitch is what the Indian camp wanted. This is what happens when you don’t water the pitch for four days. Curator Sujan Mukherjee can’t be blamed,” Ganguly told News18 Bangla.
After the second day’s play, which saw 16 wickets fall, India bowling coach Morne Morkel had admitted they hadn’t expected the pitch to deteriorate as quickly as it did.
“Yeah, look, I mean, to be honest with you, even we didn’t expect a wicket to deteriorate so quickly, we all thought when we watched that first couple of hours that it was a good wicket, so it did deteriorate quite quickly, which was unexpected,” Morkel said after the second day’s play.
India Chase History As Eden
The 124-run target is not easy by any means for India, especially given the fact that Shubman Gill won’t bat for India. Gill was ruled out of the Test due to neck spasm. If India manage to get over the line, it’ll be a record for the highest successful chase at the Eden Gardens. India are 38-3 at the time of writing, and Rishabh Pant remains the key for the hosts.