Pitch wars: The other leg of the battle for Nagpur Test was fought on Twitter and how!

There were a lot of talking points leading up to the third Test between India and South Africa in Nagpur — Amla’s failure to score, Dale Steyn’s injury, and whether Ishant Sharma is Zlatan Ibrahimovic in disguise or not. But the biggest buzz was around what the nature of the pitch would be. [caption id=“attachment_2522626” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] South African batsman J P Duminy plays a shot during the second day of the 3rd test match against Indian in Nagpur on Thusrday. PTI[/caption] As the match started, so did the hue and cry over the turning track. The battle for the third Test between India and South Africa at VCA stadium quickly turned into a Twitter battle over the ‘diabolical’ pitch. In reply to India’s 215, South Africa slumped to a record low total of 79, courtesy Ashwin and Jadeja. And all hell broke lose on Twitter. Many cricketers and cricket fans tweeted out their displeasure over yet another turning track. Cricket enthusiasts were up in arms about the track — “this isn’t fair!”, “not a balanced contest between the bat and bowl!”, “The pitch is hampering Test cricket!”, “the pitch is the reason for rising intolerance in the country!” — the outcry was of that sort. As ‘Tweeple’ are experts on everything, including cricket, they did have a word or two about the treacherous track. And just like any issue on Twitter, it soon became a tweet-off between two sides. Is it the #DemonNagpur track or is it just bad batting against spin bowling? It seems Michael Clarke and Michael Vaughn were of the same mind, but not without opposition.

However, Many fans didn’t take Vaughn and Clarke’s pitch rhetoric kindly. Even Herschelle Gibbs took a stance against Vaughn and Clarke’s sentiments.