“The ground is a bit soft…”- Former Indian bowler Irfan Pathan criticises the mediocre pitch for the India vs Ireland match

New Delhi: Cricket has returned to the USA for the first time after a long time. In a country which is frenzied by baseball, cricket will take a long time to make inroads into American society. However, to give a major boost to the entire cricketing scene in the country, ICC has decided to go ahead and organise the T20 World Cup in the States along with the West Indies.

Naturally, the first step towards that was to make some robust stadiums where the matches could be scheduled in the country. That idea led to the birth of the Nassau County Cricket Stadium which made its debut in this year’s T20 World Cup. However, in the attempt to build a robust stadium, the Americans have compromised the balance of the pitch.

Irfan Pathan takes a dig at the pitch

Former Indian bowler and World Cup winner, Irfan Pathan has criticised the pitch of Nassau after a disappointing match between South Africa and Sri Lanka left a bitter aftertaste amongst the fans. On the other hand, India’s finest cricket commentator- Harsha Bhogle also took to his X (formerly Twitter) account and criticised the outfield.

You could have a different drop in pitch, maybe, but the outfield?

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) June 3, 2024

Fans and supporters of both Sri Lanka and South Africa were disappointed by the drop in the pitch for all the batsmen. Eventually, the match ended in a low-scoring affair with Sri Lanka registering their lowest score of T20 World Cup 77/10. However, when chasing such a meagre total, the Proteas lost surprisingly 4 (80/4) wickets to chase down the total in 16.2 overs. Anrich Nortje registered his career-best figures of 4/7 from 4 overs in the T20Is.

Fans have outpoured their rage against the pitch on their rage on the entire incident:

Tough, tough pitch to bat on. Not easy conditions in New York 😞#tapmad #HojaoADFree #T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/QbYNe48O7O

— Farid Khan (@_FaridKhan) June 3, 2024

The pitch 🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️

— Chamara Kapugedara (@chamarakapu) June 3, 2024

On the other hand, Irfan Pathan has criticised the match vehemently and stated that the pitch is not ideal for a T20 match. Pathan’s X (formerly Twitter) post read as follows:

Not an ideal pitch for t20 cricket.

— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) June 3, 2024

Interestingly, India is scheduled to play against Ireland in the same pitch and given the nature of the pitch, the Indian batsmen can struggle against the Irish attack.