Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott wasn't too impressed with the surface on offer for his side's maiden semi-final in the ongoing ICC Men's T20 World Cup. It was a fresh wicket being used at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba, Trinidad and hence Afghanistan opted to bat first but the wicket was conducive to fast bowling with the surface being uneven. The ball was seaming, swinging, staying low and rising audaciously and was doing all sorts of things and South African pace attack was on fire.
Afghanistan were bowled out for 56 and South Africa chased it down without much discomfort to advance to their maiden men's T20 World Cup final. Afghanistan had played at this venue before but then it assisted the spinners and was slow and low but this one came out of syllabus for the Asian side. Hence, Trott wasn't happy saying that this is not a surface one would play a World Cup semi-final on.
"I don't want to come across as bitter or [it being a case of] sour grapes. But that's not a pitch you want to have a semi-final of a World Cup on, plain and simple," Trott said at the post-match press conference. "It should be a fair contest. I am not saying it should be flat completely with no spin and no seam movement but I am saying that you shouldn't have batters worrying about going forward and the ball flying over the head. You should be confident in the foot movement and being able to hit through the line or use their skills."
Trott mentioned that it would have been fairplay to the opposition bowlers if they had bowled really well and gotten their batters using their skills but said that once the pitch started misbehaving, it no longer was about just the skills while commending the South African bowlers for their effort.
When asked about the pitch, the winning captain Aiden Markram was relived that they were playing just this one game here and mentioned that playing on tough surface in New York boarded well for them in terms of being ready for tough conditions in the rest of the tournament.
"Yeah, I mean T20 cricket as a whole, you want entertainment. The wickets that we've had throughout the competition have been pretty challenging. Tonight's wicket was pretty challenging once again. It's hard to tell that a wicket is not good because it can't just always be a batter's game, but I think if we reflect on this wicket, we'll probably be pretty happy that we're not playing here again.
"But having said that, still taking the positives we can. Wickets are tough. Wickets are the same for both teams on the night. So, finding a way to win is probably the most important thing," Markram added.
The final will be played in Barbados, which is a truer wicket and does provide a contest between bat and ball.
