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Journalism of Courage
The Pindi cricket stadium wicket will have something for the bowlers to bend their back. The wicket was watered again on Thursday morning and there has been a lot of cut grass sprinkled on it; difficult to predict how it will shape up on match day but it should provide plenty of bounce.
Local boy Shoaib Akhtar, if he plays this match, shouldn’t be too bothered; but his Indian counterparts would be happy to buy any little help possible from the wicket. ‘‘It’s a bit difficult to judge the wicket now; I think we would get a clearer picture by tomorrow’’, said Rahul Dravid. ‘‘The last time we played here, it was a high-scoring match and I don’t expect this wicket to be any different from that time, or even from the previous match in Peshawar.’’
Aga Zahid, the chief curator, too believes that it will be a good one-day wicket and should assist a high-scoring match.
Interestingly, the last match played at the Pindi Cricket Stadium — England versus Pakistan — was a low-scoring affair, each side just crossing 200. With the early morning dew and a nip in the air, things can turn out to be a bit different for the side bowling first.
In a series where scores of 300 are reasonable targets, team with a good seam attack can realistically hope of restricting the bar on batsmen to 250-270 runs.
