The picturesque HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh hosted its final match in the ongoing ICC Men's Cricket World Cup and it gave the local crowd and audiences watching worldwide one of the classics as 388 played 383 when the trans-Tasman rivals Australia and New Zealand were up against each other. While many were dejected that it was the last game at the picturesque venue of the tournament, many others felt relieved because of the deteriorating condition of the outfield.
The Dharamsala outfield has come under the scanner quite a few times in the tournament as evidently it's not been in the best condition and thankfully no player suffered any injury and most of them avoided diving because of the same fear, especially after what happened with Mujeeb ur Rahman in the venue's first game 20 days ago between Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh had a somewhat similar experience on Saturday, October 28 when his knee got stuck in the outfield and thankfully, no damage was done despite a huge chunk of the surface coming out.
The incident took place in the 43rd over of the New Zealand innings bowled by skipper Pat Cummins when Marsh ran and dived to the right of square leg to limit Jimmy Neesham to just one. However, as he dived, his knee got stuck in the outfield, a lot of soil came out as Marsh found himself on his haunches. Thankfully, he was alright as his teammates checked on him while David Warner checked the outfield where the all-rounder got stuck.
Watch the video here:
With a Test match between India and England set to be played in a few months' time at the same venue, the players, team management and the fans will hope that the outfield can be improved because it is not ideal at the moment and in a five-day game it could see a few more of such incidents if not worked upon.
Australia prevailed in a nail-biter by just five runs as Neesham with a 39-ball 58 gave it his all but it wasn't to be for the Black Caps as they suffered their second successive loss.
