Uneven Playing Field: India got its victory on the diabolic Kotla strip in New Delhi

A few months later, on the disastrous 1969-70 tour of South Africa, host captain Ali Bacher went out for an early toss with Bill Lawry for the second Test in Durban. Lawry won the toss and decided to field. According to Mallett, as his captain reached the dressing room, the Kingsmead groundsmen were already at work, removing the grass. The rule book allowed the pitch to be worked on up to 30 minutes before the start of play.

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But then, Lawry had given in to a request for an early toss. South Africa’s first innings score of 622 meant that they didn’t have to bat again in the Test which Australia lost by an innings and 129 runs. On the 1956 Ashes tour of England, the Australian camp felt that the pitch for the fourth Test at Manchester was doctored to suit Laker and fellow spinner Tony Lock. The surface was coated with a substance called marl. Without taking away from Laker’s 19 wickets in the Test, the Australians felt they were duped. In fact, after the Australians won the second Test at Lord’s where Keith Miller got 10 wickets, England’s captain Peter May told Australia’s batting great Neil Harvey, “that’s the last wicket you are going to get like that.” And pace terror Frank Tyson, who was recovering from injury and all set to play the third Test at Leeds, was told by his England bosses that he would not be needed for the series.

The 1972 Australians believed they were done in at the same venue when, strangely, the Leeds pitch contracted a fungus called Fusarium. The fungus rendered the pitch dodgy and left-arm spinner Derek Underwood, known for being unplayable on damp pitches, was summoned to be part of the England playing XI for the first time in the series. The Leeds Test came close on the heels of the Lord’s game where Australia had levelled the series through the swing and pace of BobMassie and Dennis Lillee. England, as expected, won at Leeds. Despite India’s heroics, the Kotla Test of 2013 will go down in history as a three-day game played on a wrestling pit of a pitch. India’s wrestling authorities could consider it as an apt venue for a championship. It may even help the sport to stay as an Olympic discipline.u00a0

Clayton Murzello is MiD DAY’s Group Sports Editor