India vs West Indies: Lucknow T20I expected to be low-scoring affair, hints pitch curator at Ekana Stadium

Lucknow: Twenty20 is always considered to be a batsmen-friendly format but the second Twenty20 International between India and West Indies on Tuesday is expected to be a low scoring affair, according to a local curator. Lucknow is hosting an international cricket match after 24 long years with the newly-built Ekana Stadium making its debut. [caption id=“attachment_5507231” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] But going by a local curator, the cricket-crazy fans of the city are up for a dampener as anything above 130 would be a winning score for the team batting first. “It won’t be a high-scoring game for sure. The pitch has long dead grass on both sides with cracks in between. It will be a slow bouncing wicket and spinners are expected to play a big part from the beginning,” the curator told PTI. “The pitch is made of soil exported from Odisha’s Bolangir which is famous for its slow nature. Both the teams will find it difficult to score runs and hit big shots with long square boundaries,” he added. BCCI’s chief curator Daljit Singh was in charge of the wicket here from the beginning and he prepared the pitch with the help of UPCA curators like Ravindra Chauhan, Shiv Kumar and Surendra. Another curator who worked on the surface said had local soil been used to prepare the pitch, it would have been a run fest on Tuesday. Besides the surface, another important factor which is expected to play spoil sport is dew. “The outfield is perfect and fast, but dew is definitely going to play a big part. The winter is setting in North India now and dew is going to play a big role from the first ball. So, the ball won’t be racing towards the boundary and the batsmen will have to do a lot of running,” the local curator said. The first T20 International of the three-match series at the Eden Gardens was also a low-scoring tie with West Indies managing just 109 for 8 after being sent into bat, a target which India chased down with five wickets in hand in 17.5 overs.