Agencies
BRIDGETOWN (BARBADOS), June 29: Chris Gayle, the West Indies batting great and T20 World Cup ambassador, attributed the numerous low-scoring games in the USA leg of the tournament to "jet-lagged and tired" pitches. According to the ICC, drop-in pitches were prepared in Florida since late December, employing proprietary techniques honed over a decade at Adelaide Oval in Australia.
The drop-in pitches prepared for the tournament were transported from Florida to New York in semi-trailer trucks for installation at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, which proved to be one of the most difficult wickets for batting during the tournament.
"It's been a low-scoring World Cup without a doubt, and the wicket is on the slower side sometime. It's a batting format... going to give bowlers edge from time to time, bowlers pretty much in control of T20 World Cup," Gayle said during a press conference on Friday.
The tournament will conclude with the final between India and South Africa at Kensington Oval in Barbados.
"Barbados has been one of the best for batting, hope batters are going to get some runs tomorrow.
"We want to see better surface but the wicket in States was a bit jet-lagged as well, as we know. It was tired, all that travel from Australia, didn't get time to recover properly. That's why we had some low-scoring games," Gayle added.
The development of the pitches was undertaken by Adelaide Oval Turf Solutions, led by renowned Adelaide Oval head curator Damian Hough.
|
