alfie wrote:Bounce was generally low ; but apart from that one nothing really extreme. Pitch seemed to mellow after lunch though there is certainly spin there so will be interesting to see how conditions develop as the game wears on
Dare I say the conditions point towards the fact that the pitch was left with too much dampness, maybe an error in watering it too late or some water crept into the covers by accident at some stage. Whatever it was, in the first session the pitch was very two paced, very uneven off certain lengths (and biased to one end), the ball died quickly into the outfield, and the level of turn in the morning session was higher than in the afternoon.... all symptoms of dampness in the wicket, and all symptoms that disappeared quickly as the pitch was left to dry out.
I have never seen a pitch produced uneven bounce to that level from the first session, then look pancake flat in the afternoon... not naturally. Something was clearly wrong with the pitch initially.
