Cricket Association of Bengal president Sourav Ganguly defended curator Sujan Mukherjee amid criticism over the prepared pitch for the opening Test between India and South Africa at the Eden Gardens. The surface has very popular bowlers who offer turn and bounce from day one and make life difficult for the batsmen.
Until the third innings, Temba Bavuma was the only batsman to score a fifty, highlighting the lack of an even match between bat and ball, contrary to Ganguly’s earlier assurance. Former England captain Michael Vaughan also weighed in, bluntly describing the surface as a horrible pitch.
India vs. South Africa 1st Test Day 3 Update
Ganguly claimed that the pitch was prepared exactly as India wanted, adding that this is how the surface behaves naturally when it is not watered for four days.
“The pitch is what the Indian camp wanted. This is what happens when you don’t water the pitch for four days. Curator Sujan Mukherjee is not to blame,” Ganguly told News18 Bangla.
After the second day of play, which saw 16 wickets fall, India’s bowling coach Morne Morkel admitted that they did not expect the pitch to deteriorate as quickly as it did.
“Yeah, look, I mean, to be honest, even though we didn’t expect the wicket to go down that quickly, we all thought when we watched it for the first couple of hours that it was a good wicket, so it went down quite quickly, which was unexpected,” Morkel said after the second day’s play.
INDIA AIM FOR HISTORY
Despite bowling South Africa out cheaply in the first innings, India managed only a slender lead of 30. But Ravindra Jadeja’s four-wicket haul rocked the Proteas in the second innings, with only Temba Bavuma providing real resistance.
India are currently chasing 124 to win the Kolkata Test and take a 1-0 lead in the two-match series. They are aiming to complete the highest successful chase in the history of Test cricket at Eden Gardens.
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Issued by:
sabyasachi chowdhury
Published on:
November 16, 2025
