Kolkata: At a moment when ICC has termed Pune pitch as ‘Poor’, the Eden Gardens wicket on Wednesday came under scanner during Jharkhand vs Saurashtra match where Dhoni’s men sealed the game by 42-runs in Vijay Hazare Trophy.
Former India skipper MS Dhoni was kind of ‘unhappy’ over Eden Gardens wicket on which Jharkhand collapsed for just 125 runs in 27.3 overs as the match saw as score of 208 runs in 52.4 overs in two innings.
After the customary handshake, Dhoni headed straight to the curator Sujan Mukherjee’s dugout and was seen in an animated discussion lasting about five minutes.
A former joint-secretary, Mukherjee who’s now the curator of the wicket said Dhoni said the wicket was seaming but he never complained about the strip.
“Yes he said the wicket seamed a lot but he never came to complain. Even I’m not happy with the wicket. I also felt the ball moved and swung a bit more,” Mukherjee told the media.
Rubbishing the references that Dhoni went to complain about the wicket, Mukherjee said: “He came to meet me as I was his East Zone coach during his U-19 days. During his previous match I was not here so he came to meet me.”
Mukherjee was in Mumbai for an IPL curators’ meeting yesterday as the groundsmen had watered the pitch but before it fully dried up they had covered the pitch.
“It seemed there was some moisture retention that led to ball swinging. It was one of those days. It will be fine by the next match.”
Incidentally as Team India captain Dhoni in the past had criticised the Eden wicket many a times and had termed it “ugly”.
After the match Ishank Jaggi was asked about the wicket. The Jharkhand middle order batsman said,” Maha bekar wicket hai.”
As for the match, sent into bat, Jharkhand’s innings folded for 125 runs in just 27.3 overs with Ishan Kishan scoring a half-century (53) while Dhoni (23), and Ishank Jaggi (12) were the two other batsman to reach double digits.
The paltry target proved too difficult for Saurashtra who were skittled out for 83 in 25.1 overs as Jharkhand registered their third successive victory. The Eden Gardens pitch was back in focus with its uneven bounce after only three batsmen from each camp posted double digits with Kishan scored a solitary half-century.
On a precarious-looking surface, it was the seamers who ruled the roost, grabbing all the 20 wickets on offer. Jharkhand’s pace spearhead Varun Aaron bowled his quota in one spell en route to 4/20 as he along with Rahul Shukla (4/32) and Jaskaran Singh accounted for all the 10 Saurashtra wickets.
Dhoni was seen employing an attacking field with two in the slip cordon and two forward short leg and silly point around the batsmen.
From being 30/3 after 10 overs at innings break, Saurashtra’s collapse began after Aaron dismissed their skipper Shah in the 15th over as they lost the remaining seven wickets for 34 runs in 12.3 overs.
Earlier, Jharkhand’s innings revolved around Kishan’s fluent 40-ball 53 (5×4, 4×6) as their innings folded for 125 in 27.3 overs. Having survived a close caught-behind call after the Kushang Patel’s delivery flew past his outside edge in the first ball, Dhoni looked resolute before being trapped by Shaurya Sanandia in the 21st over. Dhoni made 23 from 24 balls and pulled the Saurashtra wrecker-in-chief Sanandia for a huge six over fine leg in his 51-minute vigil at the crease.
With inputs from PTI.