India's dismissal for a mere 76 runs in the second Test in Ahmedabad on Thursday may have been blamed on the pitch, but the chairman of BCCI's Ground and Pitch Committee insists there is no devil in the 22-yard strip.
Even though India crashed to one of their lowest totals in Test history, Daljit Singh said the wicket prepared by Dhiraj Parsanna was not a poor one.
"The track had some moisture and some grass cover. We (India) had a very strong batting line-up and we just needed our top batsmen to stay there for one or two hours," Singh told PTI.
The grass was needed to hold the wicket for five days, he argued.
"It is already touching 40 degrees Celsius in Ahmedabad. The track which has been prepared needs to be good enough to hold for five days of cricket. We don't need a situation where the wicket starts to crumble on the third day itself," he said.
"I would say that it was just a bad session and nothing else. Our top order batsmen needed to apply themselves more to sail through the early morning assistance which the South African bowlers derived from the Motera track in Ahmedabad," he said.
Singh, however, said the Motera track was likely to benefit the spinners on the two last days.
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