Eden pitch exposed chinks in Indian batting lineup

THE EDEN SURFACE was a minefield; it prematurely cracked, crumbled, and had variable hardness. This was a wicket which had no exact doctrine to embrace. It was where the old cliche, stick to the strengths, rings the truest. Attackers had to attack; stonewallers had to stonewall. In-betweenism was bound to fail. The vile nature of the pitch would have invariably played in batsmen’s mind, as Indians stumbled into in-betweenism and failed.

- SANDIP G

On an evil wicket, a batsman only sees the devils. A benign ball grows teeth, a boundary ball develops fangs, a routine good length ball sprouts wings, and the strip becomes a Loch Ness Monster. Batsmen, with jaundiced eyes, start seeing everything in yellow. It distorts the judgment, muddies perceptions, and makes batting look a more treacherous exercise than it actually is.

But Gautam Gambhir’s observation that the strip was not unplayable was not entirely bereft of logic. “It might not be a wicket which is going to (allow you to) be very, very flamboyant, where you can play those big shots. But if you are willing to put your head down, definitely it's a wicket where you can score,” he would say.