Jaipur, Nov. 29: Twenty-one was the grand total Hyderabad achieved on the opening day of the 77th Ranji Trophy in 78 minutes of mayhem at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium here not very long ago. The 22-yard strip has since then been dubbed the ‘Hyderabad track’ and it will be this very same pitch on which the second India-New Zealand ODI will be played on Wednesday.
“We have come to call this track the Hyderabad wicket. It is one of the side pitches adjacent to the centre track which hosted the last ODI here between India and South Africa in February this year,” curator Taposh Chatterjee said on Monday.
The India-South Africa tie was a nail-biting, which India won by just one run. The Rajasthan Cricket Association curator believes the batsmen will once again dominate in Wednesday’s one-dayer.
“The track on which Hyderabad were bowled out was prepared to assist seamers like Deepak Chahar. But no pitch can be so difficult for a team to be bowled out for 21. The pitch for the ODI has brown grass rolled into it to ensure it doesn’t break up as the game progresses. We had prepared two tracks for the one-dayer and discarded the other one since it was still a bit damp,” he said.
Jaipur experienced heavy rain over the last four days which has made the task tougher for RCA.