World Cup: Daniel Vettori surprised with ‘used’ pitch

New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori is surprised that they will be playing the all important semifinal on the same track in R Premadasa where Sri Lanka thrashed England by 10 wickets in the quarters on Saturday. The pitch was criticised for being slow and low on which the hosts’ spinners dominated the game.

“Yeah, they’ve told us we’re playing on the same one as England, which is very surprising for us. Playing a World Cup semifinal on a used wicket? We would have thought it would be mandatory to prepare a fresh wicket but obviously not,” Vettori said on the eve of the semifinal.

The left-arm spinner might field three spinners again. “I think the fact that it’s a used wicket may allow us to do that, but Sri Lanka’s also a different team, they grew up playing spin. So, for us, we’ll have a good long hard look at McKay and Tuffey and see if they’re a good option to come in instead of the third spinner. But we’ll make that decision tomorrow,” he added.

Compared to the 2007 semifinals in West Indies, Vettori said the hosts will be tough this time as they are playing at home.

“This semi-final’s going to be a lot harder because Sri Lanka are playing at home. Maybe five or six of us were involved in that from last time, so there’s a high turnover of players and it’s probably the same with the Sri Lankan team. So, it’s a completely separate entity, I think.”