A common view prior to the ICC Twenty20 world cup 2024 ultimate between India and South Africa at Kensington Oval on June 28, 2024 in Bridgetown, Barbados.
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Chris Gayle, the West Indies batting nice and T20 World Cup ambassador, attributed the quite a few low-scoring video games in the USA leg of the match to “jet-lagged and tired” pitches.
According to the ICC, drop-in pitches have been ready in Florida since late December, using proprietary strategies honed over a decade at Adelaide Oval in Australia.
Watch: T20 World Cup 2024: What went mistaken in the matches held in USA
The drop-in pitches ready for the match have been transported from Florida to New York in semi-trailer vehicles for set up at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, which proved to be some of the tough wickets for batting through the match.
“It’s been a low-scoring World Cup without a doubt, and the wicket is on the slower side sometime. It’s a batting format… going to give bowlers edge from time to time, bowlers pretty much in control of T20 World Cup,” Gayle stated throughout a press convention on Friday.
The match will conclude with the ultimate between India and South Africa at Kensington Oval in Barbados.
“Barbados has been one of the best for batting, hope batters are going to get some runs tomorrow.
“We need to see higher floor however the wicket in States was a bit jet-lagged as effectively, as we all know. It was drained, all that journey from Australia, did not get time to get well correctly. That’s why we had some low-scoring video games,” Gayle added.
The development of the pitches was undertaken by Adelaide Oval Turf Solutions, led by renowned Adelaide Oval head curator Damian Hough.
The drop-in square – the type used around the world including at Adelaide Oval and Eden Park – was curated in Florida and transported by road to New York via a convoy of more than 20 semi-trailer trucks in April.
The matches in New York took place at a state-of-the-art 34,000-seat modular stadium located at Eisenhower Park in Nassau County, east of Manhattan.
The former West Indies captain lauded the ICC for efforts to promote the game in mainland America.
“The ICC did a incredible job, the trophy tour, did effectively to promote the sport inside the US. They have taken the trophy to the soccer video games, baseball video games, they’ve finished an excellent job from the advertising and marketing perspective,” Gayle said.
Coming back to the big-ticket title clash, Gayle said lead pacer Jasprit Bumrah could decide India’s fate against South Africa.
Inaugural edition winners India and first-time finalists South Africa will battle it out at the Kensington Oval in their bid to be crowned the world champions in the game’s shortest format.
“India are going to be so arduous to beat. They bat so deep and in Jasprit Bumrah, have a world-class dying bowler who can break the hearts of the opponents,” Gayle wrote in a column for the ICC.
“In distinction, I picked South Africa as a darkish horse earlier than the match started, and it is rather particular to see them lastly attain their first ultimate after so many semi-final upsets.
“Getting over the hump and winning a World Cup is so special and if they can do it, it will create memories that will last a lifetime for the players and the nation.” The ultimate pits two undefeated groups with India in search of to reclaim the trophy they final gained in the 2007 version, and South Africa in search of to etch their title on a senior World Cup trophy for the primary time.
Gayle discovered it robust to predict a winner.
“It is going to be so hard to call – with two teams who have played clean and aggressive cricket throughout the tournament,” he stated.
“We have a final fit for the occasion.”