Internet Desk: India batsman Ajinkya Rahane on Friday dismissed concerns raised over the Wanderers pitch that has come under heavy criticism for offering uneven bounce.
“Wicket was challenging. It was similar for both the teams,” Rahane said.after the third day’s play.
The Mumbai batsman said that India tailenders also had to deal with short deliveries and they batted without raising any objections over the pitch. “What about them bowling short balls to our bowlers. When Ishant [Sharma], Bhuvi, [Mohammed] Shami and [Jasprit] Bumrah were batting, everyone was bowling bouncers. I don’t think it is a dangerous wicket, yes, it is a challenging wicket,” he observed.
The India vice-captain further added that nobody was talking about nature of the pitch when Hashim Amla scored 60 in South Africa ‘s first innings. “New ball is challenging but you cannot call it dangerous, When Amla got 60, no one talked about the pitch. Everybody talked about how he played,” he said. “I hope Elgar is fine, but I don’t think pitch is too dangerous. I don’t know what the ICC is going to do, but as a team our focus is to get on with the game,” Rahane added.
The Indian team manager Sunil Subramaniam said that they want to play on the surface despite the concerns raised by the match officials and the South African team but the decision whether play continues doesn’t rest with them. “We didn’t ask them to prepare this wicket. They prepared it. We want to play on this. Rest decision is with umpires and match referee,” he said.
He further revealed that the match referee Andy Pycroft had asked them if they deemed the pitch dangerous but they felt it behaved the same on all three days.
South Africa were 17/1 after India set them 241 runs to win when the play was called off.