Nagpur’s VCA Stadium has been criticised for having a poor pitch
India beat South Africa in November’s Freedom Series at the venue
South Africa captain Hashim Amla said the pitch was tough to play on
ICC handed the stadium an official warning ahead of the World Twenty20
Nagpur: Nagpur’s VCA Stadium, set to host Scotland’s matches at next year’s World Twenty20, has been slapped with an official warning over a poor pitch following November’s Test between India and South Africa.
Hosts India won the third Test of the Freedom Series inside three days and by a comfortable margin of 124 runs.
Gold Rate
Thursday 13 March 2025
In a low-scoring game where South Africa were bowled out for 79 in their first innings, India’s Ravichandran Ashwin picked up match figures of 12 for 98.
At the conclusion, South Africa skipper Hashim Amla was quoted as saying the pitch was one of the toughest he had played on, while match referee Jeff Crowe rated the surface as ‘poor’.
On Monday, the International Cricket Council said in a statement: ‘Jamtha Stadium, Nagpur, has been given an official warning under the ICC Pitch Monitoring Process following the third Test between India and South Africa.
‘The sanction took into consideration the fact that there had been no concerns about the performance of the pitch after any of the other international matches played at this venue.
‘In reaching the verdict, the ICC agreed with the ‘poor’ rating given to the pitch by Jeff Crowe, the match referee for the Nagpur Test played from 25-27 November, who observed that the pitch did not allow a fair contest between bat and the ball.’
Nagpur is set to host several matches at the World T20 in 2016, including all three of Scotland’s fixtures and the clash between India and New Zealand.
