Centurion soil cracked up too early in the Indian heat remembers Newlands curator Flint

After the poor batting performance in the 1st Test in Cape Town where India missed an opportunity to win the game after the bowlers produced a magical effort with the ball. Indians were chasing a low total of 208 but Vernon Philander rattled the Indian batting side with the swing which was on offer at Newlands.

Curator of the wicket, Evan Flint produced a sporting wicket which had a lot in it for the bowlers but also gave batsmen the opportunity to score runs given they applied themselves. Both the Indian and South African skipper rated the pitch a good one and felt that better application from the batsmen could’ve fetched a lot more runs.

Flint, in an interview with Mid-Day, remembered when he was called on to create the 22-yards of the newly built DY Patil stadium in Navi Mumbai. Indian authorities had successfully bought around 200-tons of soil from South Africa’s Centurion through the sea route without much troubles.

It would get cracked up in Indian heat

Flint on the request of Dr. Vijay Patil had arrived in India before the first edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) to work on the square of the ground. Flint recalled that the Indian curators were not ready to even go near the soil bought from Centurion. Flint remembered that after working with the soil, he also eventually realized that this is not going to work in the hot conditions in the subcontinent.

He said that the prepared wicket would get cracked up so early because of the high temperature. All the hope to get the ground match-ready was eventually drained as the soil simply didn’t work and Flint felt that It was really a nightmare for him during his 8-week stay in India.

After a number of failed attempts to get the Centurion soil working, the authorities of the DY Patil stadium eventually decided to stick with the Indian clay and soil which are used on all other grounds in the country.