Teams visiting India are always vociferous in their complaints when they get to play on a spin-friendly pitch in any format of cricket in the country, trying to rip apart the pitch as unplayable, dangerous and poor for cricket.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
But New Zealand spinner Michael Bracewell did not make any such complaints after his team lost to India in the low-scoring second T20I of the three-match series on a spin-friendly pitch at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
New Zealand were restricted to just 99\/8 in their 20 overs on a pitch on which the ball took a copious amounts of turn and was unplayable at times. In reply, India almost made a meal of the chase as New Zealand used five spinners to put pressure on them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
With three runs needed off two balls, Suryakumar Yadav slapped Blair Tickner over mid-off for four to level the three-match series 1-1. In the match, spinners from both teams got a huge turn as they bowled 30 out of 40 overs, with no six hit by batters from both teams.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
While former India left-handed batter Gautam Gambhir and New Zealand fast-bowling all-rounder James Neesham were critical of the nature of the Lucknow pitch, Bracewell did not gripe about the surface despite being asked leading questions on the nature of the surface.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Though he said he would not want to play on such a surface regularly, he said they have learnt their lessons from such matches.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"It's probably not a wicket that you want to play on every single time you play a Twenty-20, but once every now and then is an exciting opportunity to learn and try and grow your skills," Bracewell said in the post-match press conference.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"We can't complain. It's exciting to try and figure out a way to play on these different wickets," Bracewell said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"If you play on a wicket like that all the time or a wicket that's flat all the time, you don't get a true test of your skills. I think a variety of wickets around the world is a positive thing," Bracewell added.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Bracewell is usually starved of any assistance from pitches at home and could expect this kind of help for spinners only in his dreams.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
He said spinners from both sides bowled well on the pitch in Lucknow.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"I think both teams showed that the spinners bowled really well and made it really difficult to score. Not having a six scored in the game is probably a reflection of that. It was not an easy wicket to bat on, and it's one of those games, a very exciting game, but probably a little bit different to the normal Twenty20 that we expect."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
With the ball spinning so much, New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner himself turned his arm over as spinners bowled 17 of the 19.5 overs for the Black Caps.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"I think both teams showed that the spinners bowled really well and made it really difficult to score. Not having a six scored in the game is probably a reflection of that. It was not an easy wicket to bat on, and it's one of those games, a very exciting game, but probably a little bit different to the normal Twenty20 that we expect."<\/p>\r\n\r\n