T20 World Cup batsmen glad to be rid of New York

WESTBURY, New York:

WHILE THE atmosphere at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in Westbury, New York, has been impressive where a number of T20 World Cup games have been staged, the cricketers, batsmen in particular, are happy to see the back of the pitches there.

In seven T20 World Cup games from Groups A and D, a team is yet to score 140 on the ground, with the International Cricket Council coming in for some stick over the nature of what are called drop-in pitches.

South Africa, having won three matches from three starts to date, have been the most successful team in New York, but even they would not mind being able to avoid pitches of a similar nature.

South Africa batsman Heinrich Klaasen has made it clear that the batters can’t wait to see the back of the Nassau County surfaces.

“I think all the batters are keen to get out of this place, to be fair. The bowlers would love to stay here, but we’ve done our job, and that was the goal to win three out of three matches here. It was a little bit harder than we thought, but that’s also good preparation for going into the next phase of this competition.

The group leaders, South Africa, have already left for the Caribbean, where they will face Nepal on Friday in Kingstown.

Bangladesh, who suffered a nail-biting loss to the South Africans in front of 25,000 fans, are second in the group, and they are also keen to bid adieu to New York as the business end of the tournament draws closer.

“Here, the outfield is also slow. If you saw the last couple of matches here, it’s always low scoring, and I think it’s a bit challenging for batsmen. Every batsman here is struggling a bit,” said Bangladesh batsman Tawhid Hridoy.

Today the venue will see the final game of the tournament when the United States takes on India.

While blockbuster encounters like Pakistan vs India have drawn 35,000 fans into the stadium, journalist Nicholas Maitland from the Nation Publishing in Barbados, one of the few newsmen from the Caribbean to take in some of the action in New York, believes that the audience was a little shortchanged.

“I think the fans here wanted to see 350 plus combined runs and not necessarily 20 wickets, and that was the downside to some of the American venues, but in the Caribbean, I expect the batting to improve, with harder pitches and faster outfields.”