Swanky new seats. Clean washrooms. New LED floodlights. Lush green grass in the outfield. Revamped media box. It’s that time of the year which the cricket fans have been waiting for. The 2023 ODI World Cup seems to have truly arrived at the Arun Jaitley stadium in New Delhi.
While the two finalists of the last edition, England and New Zealand, will take on each other in the tournament opener in Ahmedabad on October 5, Delhi will host its first fixture on Saturday.
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“The gate to chair experience is my priority for the fans. I have approached my responsibility as a spectator. I have to look at it from the perspective of a ticket-buying fan. We have to showcase a modern stadium. We have upgraded every facility from the time the stadium was renovated in 2008. I have given special attention to the food and beverages section for the fans with no compromise on hygiene,” DDCA President Rohan Jaitley had said a few days back.
Well, the promises have been fulfilled and the spectators can surely expect a good time when they visit the venue for the World Cup games.
The first game at this venue will be an encounter between South Africa and Sri Lanka. The Proteas have started gearing up for the first match as they had their first net session on Wednesday.
Negotiating the spin
Every time a side visits India, spin is a factor that haunts them thoroughly and with three frontline spinners in the Indian unit, all the teams would be focusing on negotiating the same. The batters faced a variety of spinners including local Delhi boys throughout the training session on Wednesday evening.
Aiden Markram and David Miller looked quite steady and solid against the spinners. While Markram was mostly focused on playing ground shots, Miller didn’t shy away from taking the aerial route.
The left-handed batter hit one straight over the bowler’s head, a stroke that was drew unanimous approval. Not just these two, but Marco Jansen also played aggressive strokes whenever he found one in his slot.
It appears that the South Africa team management has certainly handed him a task with the bat and that is to slog whenever he is out there in the middle.
On the other side, Reeza Hendricks and Gerald Coetzee didn’t really seem comfortable against spin. In fact, the two batters were beaten outside the off stump quite a few number of times.
Coetzee, especially looked in some discomfort against an offie and was even cleaned up on a couple of occasions.
Sweeping is the new defence
The sweep shot in the last couple of years or so has become the go to shot for a lot of batters while negating spin against India. Coetzee is the new addition to this list who was trying to negotiate the spinners with sweep shot.
Although, that didn’t really work for the right-hander as he continued to struggle against the offspinners.
The sweep shot might be an option to play spin in the Indian conditions but is it really that impactful? We have seen a side crumble during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, trying to apply the same technique in Test cricket not too long ago.
Watching Coetzee closely, it seemed that the batter needs to add some different strokes in his arsenal to be able to play in these conditions.
Shamsi, Maharaj bowl in tandem
Meanwhile, South African spinners Tabraiz Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj looked in good rhythm for most of the time they bowled. Both the spinners managed to stick to the right lines as they quite stubbornly bowled around the good length area in the line of off and middle stump.
The Sri Lankan team will most likely begin the practice session on Thursday (October 5). Both the sides are slated to have their net sessions on October 5 and 6 ahead of their first game.
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