The chief pitch curator responsible for the Trinidad pitch at the T20 World Cup has acknowledged that poor execution led to an imbalanced playing surface in the first semi-final between Afghanistan and South Africa.
Afghanistan qualified for the semi-finals at the 2024 T20 World Cup for the first time. However, they were blown away by a rampant South African pace attack on aiffy surface in Trinidad, getting bowled out for 56 in 11.5 overs. South Africa chased it down inside nine overs with nine wickets remaining.
Pitch curator: Preparation programme was not carried out as planned
Afghanistan's total of 56 in the first innings was the lowest-ever innings total in a T20 World Cup knockout game.
Kent Crawfton, who oversaw pitch preparation for the West Indies leg of the 2024 T20 World Cup, has conceded that although there was a conscious effort to prepare a strip that would have something in it for both batters and bowlers, the surface ended up being too "one-sided".
"The intention was to produce good cricket pitches, with something in there for bowlers to work with," Crawfton told Cricbuzz; however, he admitted that the preparations went wrong and "the pitch ended up being too one-sided".
"The preparation programme was not carried out as planned. Thus, it became a cracked surface causing too much variation in pace, bounce, and sideways movement," he added.
Irregular weather pattern added to pitch preparation troubles
Crawfton believes that one of the major reasons the preparation of the surface at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Trinidad went wrong was because of the irregular weather patterns in the Carribean Islands in the months preceeding the World Cup.
"There were a number of reasons [for some pitches to go wrong]," he said. "First of all, we had a very strange weather pattern in April, even March-April, especially in some of our islands. It was extremely hot and dry. But I must say we all went for that period as strongly as we could in terms of getting our operations done."
The semi-final pitch came under particular scrutiny and was blamed by many for Afghanistan's meek exit in what had, until that point, been an impressive tournament for them as they comprehensively beat New Zealand and Australia on their way to their first-ever semi-final.
Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott was particularly scathing of the surface. "That's not the pitch that you want to have a semi-final of a World Cup on," he said after the match. "You shouldn't have batsmen worrying about going forward."
The Barbados surface for the final was much more balanced, offering some assistance to both pace and seam bowlers, as well as the batters. Over 300 runs were scored in the final, in which India beat South Africa to win their second T20 World Cup title, 17 years after winning their first in the tournament's inaugural edition.
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