FRANKENSTEIN PITCH

15 wkts, 245 runs & one retired hurt; Day Two played on fast forward mode with batters from both teams finding strip treacherous to spin

- SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN

WHEN the players walked off for bad light on Day One of the first Test between India and South Africa, there were people who were retaining their counsel about the state of the surface. The bounce was already uneven, there were already some mini-explosions and turn was ample for the spinners, even from good length areas.

These kinds of pitches, it was thought, would be left behind by the new regime led by Shubman Gill and Gautam Gambhir. They had kind of shown an inclination towards wickets where the bowlers would have to work hard. Gill, on the eve of the West Indies series, had said as much. "We want to play hard, grinding cricket," the captain had declared.

Post their 2-0 win, Gambhir didn't necessarily contradict his captain but he had expressed his displeasure about the state of the surface. He specifically wanted a wicket with more carry. "I thought that we could have had a better wicket here." At lunch on Day Two, it wouldn't have been hard to imagine the support staff uttering those exact same words to each other within the comforts of the dressing room at Eden Gardens but for a different reason.