”In my time as South African coach, I’ve never seen a pitch behave like this,” commented Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer on the pitch at Newlands after the second day’s play in the third Castle Lager Test between South Africa and Pakistan.
”Thirty-two wickets fall in two days — that’s either extremely bad batting, wonderful bowling … or there’s something slightly wrong with the pitch,” said Woolmer. ”It’s difficult to put a finger on why it’s so difficult to bat on — I think most of the batsmen think they’re going to get a good one sometime, so they’ll play a shot and if you pick the wrong ball, you tend to get out.
”I wouldn’t say it’s a minefield, but it’s not one of the best pitches produced at Newlands over the last 10 or 15 years.
”I don’t think the pitch is reportable,” he added. ”It’s not been dangerous. You report a pitch when it’s dangerous.
”However, it’s one of those pitches where it’s not easy to bat on. You get one of those balls that’s unplayable and then you get out, or you can get four runs off a ball that’s pretty mediocre. You’ve got three pitches in one. You’ve got the bare end, where it’s turning; at the Wynberg End you’ve got a piece of pitch that’s keeping fairly low; and then at the Kelvin
Grove End, you’ve got a lot of grass where, if you hit it in the right place, it takes off.
”So it’s not a dangerous pitch, but a difficult one,” concluded the Pakistan coach.
South African pace-bowler Dale Steyn, who took three wickets in Pakistan’s second innings, said the pitch was ”doing something”.
”The last game we played here, it looked like we were playing in Mumbai, and this one looked like we’re playing on some beach — it’s a different-looking track. But we’ll take it. It doesn’t matter where I am in the country or in the world, a pitch is a pitch and I’m going to run in and I’m going to bowl, and I’m going to try and get some wickets.”
Woolmer said he thought the Test could go either way.
”The way the pitch is behaving, 132 could be quite tricky. It will be over shortly after lunch, either way. South Africa may be the favourites, but Pakistan would be stupid to come here tomorrow [Sunday] morning and think we can’t win. We’ll certainly be going all out to win. It all depends on the conditions tomorrow morning.”
South Africa need 125 runs to win the Test and the series. — Sapa