Cricket: Drop-in pitch changes the rules for both sides

By RICHARD BOOCK

Eden Park's portable pitch is again expected to defy convention when the third test between New Zealand and England starts on Saturday.

In stark contrast to the under-prepared offering for the second test at the Basin Reserve, the Eden Park drop-in is tipped to be a handful for batsmen early on and then to improve into something far more generous.

Like the portable pitch used for the series opener at Christchurch's Jade Stadium, the third-test surface will evidently be green enough to delight the seamers from both sides and will probably tempt the winner of the toss to bowl first.

While the natural wear and tear on permanent pitches has historically favoured the bowlers, the new-generation portable wickets seem to achieve the reverse, becoming easier to bat on as the game progresses.

Curator Warwick Sisson said yesterday that he expected the test pitch to play similarly to the one used for the one-day international at Eden Park last month, when both sides were surprised by the amount of pace and bounce.

"It's got a good covering of grass, in fact it's exactly the same as the one used for the ODI, except that we'll go in with a bit more grass," he said.

The pitch used for last season's first test against Pakistan was devoid of anything green and gave the spinners plenty of assistance.

This summer's model will apparently add more weight to the suggestion that the portable technology has taken a major step forward.

Proponents of the strategy point to the success of the Melbourne Cricket Ground's drop-in pitch, which has proved fast and bouncy, the performance of Jade Stadium's green-top, and the good reviews from Eden Park's one-day international as evidence of the improvement.

Sisson said the science was still evolving and it was becoming possible in nursery-type conditions to produce any type of pitch possible, something New Zealand Cricket was experimenting with at Lincoln.

"Down there they've brought in different soil so they can mimic the conditions of the country the team might be touring, such as Pakistan," he said.

"Theoretically, you could produce any type of surface imaginable, but NZC have signalled that they want hard and fast pitches - and that's what we've prepared."