Eden Gardens’ pitch puzzled everyone, says Dhoni

KOLKATA: India captain MS Dhoni conceded that the pitch at the Eden Gardens during India’s six-wicket win over Pakistan here on Saturday confounded everyone.

It was expected that the surface would assist the quicker bowlers after having sweated under covers for the majority of the match day. Instead, the moisture helped the ball grip and turn, making for a low-scoring thriller.

“Initially, we didn’t think it would turn so much. Reading the wicket, I thought there was a bit of moisture because they had watered the wicket yesterday and I don’t think they got enough sun today,” Dhoni explained.

“The last time I saw the wicket before the start of the game, it was quite damp. And even when you roll it, the top surface looks a bit good, but it was more of a cosmetic thing, because underneath there was a lot of moisture. I feel it was because of the moisture that the spinners were getting a lot of turn,” he added.

Despite so much assistance for the spinners, Dhoni chose not to bowl Ashwin out, gave Suresh Raina just one over — for figures of 1 for 4 — and did not feel the need to employ Yuvraj Singh’s left-arm spin at all.

“Pakistani batsmen are good players of spin bowling. I felt it later on there was a chance that if I had given it to Ashwin, they (Pakistani batsmen) could have gone after him,” he said of not bringing back the off-spinner, whose first spell of three overs had only gone for 12. “I’m not saying he can’t deal with it, but I went for the safer option,” he added.