The Cricket T20 World Cup is currently on the go being held in the United States (New York, Dallas & Florida) and the West Indies. What is making this far more interesting than previous World Cups is the US pitches. These are drop in pitches being stored in Florida having been prepared in Adelaide Australia. They are shipped the 14 000 miles in pieces and kept in refrigeration before being prepared and transported to the 3 US venues. The West Indies have their own pitches which can also be a lottery, but nothing like these drop in pitches.
These are experimental pitches as this has never bee done before with 10 pitches having been created being made up of 4 match pitches and 6 practice pitches. Thy have used a clay base soil with a different type of grass than what is normally used and why the US pitches are being seen as challenging.
For those that follow T20 cricket know that this format favors the batters and not the bowlers so this is a total turn around. The pitches ae tricky offering variable bounce and when it bounces it is extreme. The outfield is grass with a sand base so the ball tends to slow down quicker than normal.
When we grew up playing cricket we were always told to play the conditions. These teams need to forget about big scores or they will come unstuck.
During the recent IPL we saw some monster scores with many teas surpassing the 200 run mark with the highest being 287. What is making this so entertaining is the games being played in he US having such low scores. South Africa were 15/4 after 6 overs and eventually recovered to beat Holland chasing only 102.
Sri Lanka scored a paltry 77 and South Africa did not fid it that easy to get past eventually navigating this after 16 overs. THE USA team who are 2 from 2 beating Canada and Pakistan thus far could still upset some other teams. If you have some decent bowlers and batsmen who are prepared to be patient then you are in with a shout.
Ireland were beaten the other day when they turned up to the ground in New York ever having set foot in the stadium. They were under prepared and it showed they had miscalculated the Canadian team. Anywhere else in the world these game would be more one sided against the newer teams, but the pitch is the leveler here.
Today we saw India who are one of the favorites and who normally score 200 plus regularly struggle to achieve 111. The commentators and Indian supporters thought it was way under par, but Pakistan failed to score the 112 required losing by 6 runs. This was more exciting than the games that have 200 plus runs as this is a different mindset required. There is no blasting of runs like what everyone expected and this ultimately is catching teams out.
Every team plays in both countries so mastering these different pitch conditions is what is going to see teams go through to the group stages into the knockout rounds. The teams that have played their games in the US and have been victorious have the upper hand because those teams yet to play in the US are in for a shock.