INDORE, 15 April 2006 — Indore, the cricket cradle of central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, is all agog on the eve of seventh and last One Day International match between India and England at the newly-built Maharani Usha Raje stadium here today.
The cricket crazy city is all dressed up to stage the event after five long years. The Indoreans after half a decade will watch their cricket idols in the flesh rather than seeing their images on small screens of their TV sets.
Though India are leading the seven matches series with unbeatable 4-1 lead the enthusiasm of fans has not subsided at all with demand for tickets still high.
The Indore tie unlike other ODIs of the series is expected to be a high scoring encounter with the skipper calling the coin correctly having no hesitation to bat first. According to pitch curator Sammender Singh the match is likely to provide enough entertainment to the spectators with the pitch providing a feast of runs. The game would be high scoring one with each side scoring about 300 runs. He pointed out the outfield is green but the 22 yard strip is shorn of grass and is hard with the ball coming well up to the bat.
He said people like seeing big shots in one-dayers and the pitch had been prepared with that in mind. People come to see ODIs blitzkriegs from the likes of MS Dhoni and Yuvraj rather than an Irfan Pathan taking five-wicket haul. Central Zone Pitch Committee member Tapash Chatterjee while concurring with the views of the curator Sammender Singh about the pitch said One-day matches are crowd game and keeping this in mind the pitch has been prepared. He said there are patches of grass on the pitch and this will hold the top layer keeping it firm. There is no need to water the pitch as the lower layer is still damp and the way the scorching sun is beating down on the day of the pitch would become very hard. A damp brown pitch with dampness is not ideal for One-day games as the ball on such surfaces comes late, he added. When this happens the ball starts making movements, he opined.
About the small cracks visible on the pitch, Chatterjee said these cracks are not deep and this gives indication that grass is holding the surface, which has become very hard.
Meanwhile, earlier, Team India coach Greg Chappell, accompanied by Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA) secretary and member of the senior selection committee Sanjay Jagdale, inspected the pitch and then both the host and visiting side had three hours’ net session. Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh did not bowl at the nets. Dravid said the bowler had a slight niggle but that he should be fit tomorrow. It may be recalled here that in the past nine ODIs have been played in Indore so far since 1983 and India have won only twice out of the seven matches they played here. India won against New Zealand by 53 runs in 1988 and against Australia by 118 runs in 2001. Meanwhile, Indian captain Rahul Dravid today threw his weight behind his beleaguered deputy Virender Sehwag and batting colleague Mohammad Kaif and exuded confidence that both the batsmen will soon come out of their bad patch.
