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Rohit, however, later confirmed that he was “just a little sore” at the post-match presentation.
Pant finished on an unbeaten 36 off 26 balls as India eventually won the game comfortably by eight wickets and 46 balls to spare after their fast bowlers had used the helpful conditions to rout Ireland for 96 in 16 overs.
“I have got to say that is not a good surface to play an international match on. It’s bordering on dangerous,” Flower said on ESPNcricinfo’s Timeout show. “You saw the ball bouncing from a length, both ways. So skidding low occasionally but in the main bouncing unusually high and striking people on the thumb, on the gloves, on the helmet and making life very very difficult for any batsman.”
From the outset, the surface in New York felt tough for the batters. There was prodigious early movement for the bowlers, but it was the awkward bounce off a length that really got them in trouble. Harry Tector was rapped on the thumb by a rising Arshdeep Singh good-length ball in the fifth over and soon fell when a rip-roaring Jasprit Bumrah bouncer pinged him on the thumb and deflected onto the helmet for a simple catch to Virat Kohli.
In the powerplay alone, Ireland played and missed 16 of the 36 balls and by the 11th over, they had slipped to 49 for 7 with all the Indian quicks registering on the wickets column.
“The Indian quicks were good enough to exploit it [the conditions], you’ve got to get that to them,” Flower said. “They kept their gameplan really simple, they hit the deck hard on a good length and that was all you needed to do. And it proved to be very tricky batting conditions for any side let alone a smaller cricketing nation like Ireland taking on the giants of India.”
Even India did not find the going easy in their 97-run chase. Virat Kohli fell in the third over, undone by the extra bounce and his top edge flowing to deep third while the rest of the batters also played a missed a few.
“You have seen dangerous pitches before as well at the international level but something has gone wrong with the preparation where either the pitch has been under-prepared or something that is beyond their control,” Manjrekar said at ESPNcricinfo’s Timeout show.
“This seems more like something beyond their control, where they have put in a lot of work in trying to get the right surface in the Big Apple and all that. But I said couple of days back as well, what can they do to make this pitch better? I am sure it is not lack of effort. At the most what you can do is keep rolling that drop-in pitch but they have a problem in hand. Inherently, I think there is something wrong with the base of that surface.”
The Sri Lanka-South Africa game played here on June 3 also had the batters in strife. Sri Lanka were bowled out for 77 in 19.1 overs while South Africa took 16.2 overs in chasing down the target.
“Maybe it is a case of, I mean it is a very strong statement, where it seems like the horse has been put before the cart,” Manjreakr said. “You know this excitement of having cricket in New York. I think Florida has been pretty okay over the years. But cricket in New York…but unfortunately, what is the most important thing isn’t quite living up to the hype which is the pitch and the general conditions, which is unfortunate.”
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