It’s a tough wicket from a batting perspective: Aiden Markram

NEW YORK: The drop-in pitch at the Nassau Stadium that hosted the T20 World Cup opener between South Africa and Sri Lanka received criticism from both team captains.

Sri Lanka was shot out for its lowest T20 total of 77 and South Africa had to struggle before securing a six wicket win in 16.2 overs here on Monday.

“The batting was a little up and down... quite a tough wicket but we found some way to score runs. It’s a tough one from a batting perspective,” said Markram at the post-match presentation.

“You try to take the pitch out of it, but if the ball misbehaves or there’s low bounce, it’s just one of those things and hopefully we can take some learnings out of it,” added the skipper, who scored 12 runs.

He said playing on the pitch would give his side some advantage ahead of the upcoming games.

“Obviously fortunate that we have our next two games here, so we know what to expect. But important to assess as you move around.” Sri Lankan skipper Hasaranga said it was not a high-scoring pitch.

“Our batters were looking at 160-170. To be honest this a 120 wicket, especially with our bowlers.

“We went with our bowling strength, that’s why we batted first. We wanted to put up a good score and defend it. This is early in the tournament, as a team we wanted to do much better especially in the batting. We know we have bowling strength, so if our batters do well we can go further,” he added. Agencies

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