India will play Sri Lanka in the second test match at the Green Park in Kanpur after a dull and a rather dreary draw at the Motera in Ahmedabad. The Green Park in Kanpur is one of the older venues in India, and had hosted its first test match in 1952.
Green Park Stadium Kanpur Uttar Pradesh
Since then, the ground has hosted 20 test matches in all, and has a higher tendency towards drawn games. Only eight of the games have seen results so far, with 12 out of the 20 matches played here having ended in draws. But the good news for the fans after the first game draw is that three of the last four games on this ground have ended in results in the favour of one team or the other. And even better news for the fans is that all the three games – twice against South Africa and once versus New Zealand – have been won by the Indians.
The reason why India has had the better of their opponents in the recent past has to do with the fact that the pitch has assisted the spinners in more ways than one. This has meant that the likes of Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble have almost invariably all the time, come to the party and got India the win.
However, after the last win here against South Africa in 2008, when the pitch was a slow, low and a spinning minefield, concerns were raised by the ICC and the match referee, Clive Lloyd about the nature of the track. This would have made the curators sit up and take notice as there had been talks of banning the venue from hosting games as well, an eventuality that the BCCI would not like to happen.
In fact, the first three games that the venue had hosted back in 1952, 1958 and 1959 had also seen three successive results here, but after that, in the 13 games that followed, there were 11 draws on a dull-looking track. Jasu Patel had once scalped a nine wicket haul in an innings on this track, following it up with five wickets in the second innings against Australia, which was half the wickets he took in his career!
It remains to be seen whether the track will assist the bowlers or will continue to remain the feather bed that the first game had shown.
(Image credit: Wikipedia)
