ICC World Cup 2023: Australia vs South Africa showed Lucknow has learnt from its mistakes

India had struggled to overhaul a 100-run target at the same venue in January this year, with the poor surface also resulting in the dismissal of curator Surendra Yadav.

After coming into much criticism following the last international match played here, the relaid pitch at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium gave a good account of itself during its first World Cup match between Australia and South Africa.

India had struggled to overhaul a 100-run target in January this year, prompting captain Hardik Pandya to term it “a shocker of a wicket” and also resulting in the dismissal of curator Surendra Yadav.

However, on Thursday, South Africa racked up a sizeable 311 in 50 overs before Australia was bundled out for 177.

The pitch offered good bounce and turn under the scorching sun in the first innings before Australia’s batting collapse, catalysed in part by favourable bowling conditions in the latter half of the game, ensured the pitch hadn’t swung to the other extreme of a flat deck.

Australia’s skipper Pat Cummins had reckoned the wicket had good pace and bounce on match eve and his words were vindicated by the prevailing conditions during the match and Marnus Labuschagne’s words after it.

“It certainly felt like conditions were nipping around. It was quite (a) steep bounce out there,” he said, adding that the dew did come into the equation later on but Australia didn’t have enough wickets left by then.

South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada, who picked three wickets in his side’s 134-run win, concurred.

“Under lights, it just seemed to zip that extra bit more. But the word during the day was that it was it had a bit of pace in it and a bit of bounce in it and I guess, with a bit of the moisture at night, it just did a bit more,” he opined.

Rabada also said that the wicket looked different from what it had during the IPL (Indian Premier League). Sportstar had reported last month that the pitch had been dug up and salt accumulation was found, following which a safe acid was used to dissolve the deposits and modify soil pH.

Rabada, who picked three wickets in his side’s 134-run win, said that the wicket looked different from what it had during the IPL (Indian Premier League).  | Photo Credit: Getty Images

In another testimony to the altered conditions, Quinton de Kock hammered a 90-ball century that included five sixes.

His three pulled maximums indicated there was good bounce on offer and the batters often played through the line only embellished the same. Openers de Kock and Temba Bavuma’s 108-run stand was also the highest for the first wicket at the venue.

Glenn Maxwell was the pick of the bowlers for Australia with two for 34 in 10 boundary-less overs and he extracted good turn, as was evident right from the first ball he bowled that spun across sharply from middle to outside leg-stump.

Leg-spinner Adam Zampa also got turn from his opening over, finding Bavuma’s outside edge with a tight leg-break only for wicketkeeper Josh Inglis to drop the catch.

At the death, Australia’s Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood found assistance off the pitch as their cutters and back-of-a-length slower deliveries meant South Africa could muster only 48 runs in the last seven overs for the loss of four wickets.

Batting under lights proved slightly more difficult as the wickets of openers Mitchell Marsh and David Warner suggest. Marco Jansen and Lungi Ngidi’s deliveries seemed to hold onto the pitch a bit, resulting in Marsh and Warner playing their shots too early.

Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi were economical and picked four wickets but there was nothing in the wicket to suggest there was inordinate assistance for spinners, as was the case in the India versus New Zealand T20I in January, where the tweakers bowled a record 30 out of the 40 overs.

New Zealand’s skipper Mitchell Santner had even joked after that game that in a bid to bowl as many overs of spin as possible, he had asked pacer Lockie Ferguson to try his hand at off-spin.

The latest season of the IPL also saw some low scores being defended successfully, including two below 140 totals that resulted in the venue being considered as a poor advertisement of the T20 game.

Even though the venue played host to Australia’s heaviest defeat in World Cup history on Thursday, the Aussies have another shot at redemption on Monday when they take on Sri Lanka here before India faces England on October 29.