India starts in style with an impressive win over Ireland

After incurring few blows, including a hit on the shoulder of its skipper Rohit Sharma, India raced to a comfortable eight-wicket win over Ireland in its T20 World Cup opener at Nassau County Cricket Stadium on Wednesday. Wicketkeeper batsman, Rishabh Pant, who smashed McCarthy’s second ball of 13th over to the maximum, to hoist win for the 2007 Cup champions India, had also received a nasty hit on his elbow early in the innings.

These blows apart, players and team officials, are making no secret of their feelings about the variable bounce of the “ghost” or “drop in” pitches on use here at County Cricket Stadium. None of the four innings played on this pitch in the two matches so far, any team would reach the triple figure mark.

In the opener, Sri Lanka were bowled out for 77. Ireland innings folded up for 96. Indian bowlers cannot be denied their due as Hardik Pandya (three for 27), Jaspreet Bumrah (two for 6 ) and young Arshpreet Singh (two for 30) bowled extremely well on a pitch of uneven bounce.

While the Indian batting coach Vikram Rathod said that playing conditions were the same for every team, Indian batsmen have quickly adapted themselves by trying to “control the controllable”. He admitted that the “drop in” pitch at Nassau County Cricket Stadium was a “challenging wicket”.

Varying are opinions of players and team officials who have had a chance to train or play on this ground.

“Toss is crucial on this ground and we are lucky, we won the toss and bowled first,” he said corroborating what the Springboks did in the first game against Sri Lanka. They won the toss and put in their opponents to bat first and bowled them out for 77.

India saw its skipper Rohit Sharma hoisting milestone of completing 1000 T20 runs by clubbing successive balls from Joshua Little to the maximum to reach the mark in style. At that time, he had reached 42 from 33 balls to take India to 64 for one in 9 overs. Earlier, India lost its star batter Virat Kohli caught at third man off Mark Adair for . Rohit retired at 56 putting Rishabh Pant in command who closed the game with a six of McCarthy with eight wickets and 46 balls to spare.

The sheen and glory of the big win has been partially taken away by the pitches, curated in Florida and brought in here the newly fabricated Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, the game’s first-of-its-kind modular playing arena that has got mired into controversies, less than a week of its commissioning.

Its uneven bounce and behavior have been worrying teams. India, after winning the toss, put Ireland into bat first as pacers Arshdeep Singh and Mohammed Siraj exhibited speed and uneven bounce that saw Indian keeper both jumping high and bending low to gather dot balls in the power play. Arshdeep was first to meet with success as he had removed both Adam Balbirnie and Paul Stirling with impressive figures of two for four at one stage. Arshdeep came for severe punishment in his fourth and last over to end with figures of 2 for 30.

Jaspreet Bumrah was virtually unplayable on this unplayable pitch after he came as a first change to end with two for six from three overs,.

Paul Stirling was clueless to a sharply bouncing delivery that crept up from length and led to a top edge. Harry Tector was hit on the gloves by another Arshdeep delivery and shook his fingers in pain. Later, he was dismissed by a Jasprit Bumrah delivery that darted into him, taking an inside edge onto his helmet on the way to the cover fielder. The uneven and abrupt bounce continued as one of rising deliveries of Arshdeep flew over the head of Benjamin White.

Great Little Master Sunil Gavaskar, who is one of the commentators, could not resist saying: “You can see the bounce. The ball is climbing over the stumps. LBWs will be a little difficult.”

Determined Ireland batters waged a fight and managed to reach 96 even after being reduced to 50-8 at one stage.

When India came to bat in chase of the winning target of 97, skipper Rohit Sharma had to retire hurt after he was hit on the shoulder by a Josh Little delivery. Rishabh Pant, too, received a blow to his elbow off the same bowler. He needed a check from the physio before resuming.

As I mentioned in one of my previous dispatches, four main pitches and six drop-in surfaces were curated in Florida and transported to New York for the T20 World Cup. Some experts who support drop in pitches hold that it takes time for the surfaces to settle down before it starts supporting both batters and bowlers alike.

It is not pitches alone that have come under severe criticism. Even outfields, too, have been drawing wrath of some players and officials. Some sandy patches were picked for mention.

Since the match of the tournament – India-Pakistan encounter – is to be played on one of these four “ghost” or “drop in” pitches on June 9, it may also like earlier matches turn out to be a low scoring game to the disappointment of cricket crazy South Asian Diaspora here.

“We want to see action, hits to the maximum and some entertaining cricket and not the ball playing the mischief,” remarked a veteran cricketer, Mr Yash Kapoor, who is long settled here.