NEW YORK – Pakistan coach Gary Kirsten defends the field after his team lost to India in the T20 Cricket World Cup in New York on Sunday.
India’s lowest total against Pakistan in a T20 match was 119, but their opponents soon managed to win by six.
The five matches played at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, set a month before the tournament, were low-key.
After India’s win over Ireland last week, Zimbabwe international and former England manager Andy Flower called him “dangerous” because of his uneven bounce.
But Sunday’s goal, while it was difficult to score, only gave him the occasional ‘open’ ball and Kirsten said he was ready for an interesting game.
“I don’t think it’s dangerous, I’d say the odd one goes up but not much. Overall it’s quite low, it’s hard to score from both ends and it’s a very slow pitch so it never works. so total,” he said.
“I would have thought 140 would have been a good score on that pitch, so India didn’t get it and so I thought we had the game,” the South African said.
Kirsten said that although the limit was at a high level, it was unusual for the T20 format top-hitting to do it for different competitions.
“We knew it was going to be tight, but you know sometimes it’s fun to watch a game like this, it’s not always about six and you can have a good game to bat, get 260 and 240, chase 120, so I don’t think that bad for the Games,” he said.
A complaint made last week saw the International Cricket Council (ICC) admit that the wickets were not up to standard to open matches at the venue.
“T20 Inc and the ICC recognize that the pitches used so far at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium have not been played as consistently as we would all like,” he said.
“The world-class pitches team has been working hard since the end of yesterday’s match to improve the situation and provide the best pitches for the remainder of the match,” he said.
Three matches will remain at the venue, the last one on Wednesday when hosts India take on the USA.
