New York (National Times) Pakistan coach Gary Kirsten defended the playing surface at New York\u2019s T20 Cricket World Cup venue on Sunday following his team\u2019s defeat to India in a low-scoring contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India were bowled out for 119, their lowest-ever score against Pakistan in a T20 game but won by six runs after their rivals fell just short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All five games at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, which features a \u2018drop in\u2019 square, laid a month before the tournament, have been low-scoring affairs.
There had been criticism of the surface after India\u2019s win over Ireland last week with former Zimbabwe international and ex-England team director Andy Flower calling it \u201cdangerous\u201d because of the uneven bounce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Sunday\u2019s wicket, while hard to score on, provided only the occasional ball which \u2018popped\u2019 off a length and Kirsten said it had made for an interesting game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think it wasn\u2019t dangerous, I mean the odd one rose up, but not many. Generally, it kept a little bit lower, it was difficult to score from both batting sides and also a fairly slow outfield so it was never going to be a big total,\u201d said Kirsten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI would have said 140 would have been a really good score on that pitch, so India didn\u2019t get that and so I thought we had the game,\u201d added the South African.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kirsten said that while boundaries had been at a premium, unusually for the big-hitting T20 format, that simply made for a different kind of contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe knew it was going to be tight, but you know sometimes it\u2019s fun seeing games like that as well, it\u2019s not always about sixes and hitting, getting 260 and 240s, you can actually have a really entertaining game on a 120 chase, so I don\u2019t think it\u2019s bad for the game,\u201d he said.
Last week\u2019s complaints led the International Cricket Council (ICC) to accept that the wickets hadn\u2019t been up to standards for the opening games at the venue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cT20 Inc and the ICC recognise that the pitches used so far at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium have not played as consistently as we would have all wanted,\u201d the ICC said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe world-class grounds team have been working hard since the conclusion of yesterday\u2019s game to remedy the situation and deliver the best possible surfaces for the remaining matches,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three games remain at the venue with the last coming on Wednesday when India face co-hosts USA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New York (National Times) Pakistan coach Gary Kirsten defended the playing surface at New York\u2019s T20 Cricket World Cup venue on Sunday following his team\u2019s defeat to India in a low-scoring contest. India were bowled out for 119, their lowest-ever score against Pakistan in a T20 game but won by six runs after their rivals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n