The pitch at the Lal Bahadur stadium in Hyderabad, the venue of the concluding league match in the TVS tri-series, is the subject of much concern to India skipper Sourav Ganguly.
As soon as he arrived at the stadium, he immediately rushed to have a look at the strip only to return with worried look.
Uneven in places, the pitch had an ample covering of grass. Not many were surprised about it, because a week back the same ground was used for the football tournament in the Afro-Asian Games. The groundsmen had hardly any time to prepare a pitch of international standard.
Groundsmen M Bhoomaiah and M Malesh had earlier in the day mentioned that the sprinkling of grass will not be a factor in the match. But convincing Ganguly was a different matter altogether. After he had a close look at the pitch -- he spent nearly 20 minutes checking it out -- the rest of the team followed suit. Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and coach John Wright all had a look but let Ganguly instruct the groundsmen.
International Cricket Council regulations do not allow home teams to prescribe to groundsmen how they should prepare their pitches. One wonders how cricket's governing body will react to Ganguly's act.
The groundsmen had maintained that a score of 280 should be easy to get and the side that wins the toss should look to bat first. But considering Tendulkar's record in Hyderabad, no total is safe defending.
Tendulkar achieved his highest score in one-day internationals and set a record for the highest score in a single ODI by an Indian with a scintillating 186 not out against New Zealand in the second ODI of the 1999/00 series between the teams.
The master batsman's 331-run partnership with Dravid is a world record for any wicket. It beat the 318-run stand by Dravid and Ganguly against Sri Lanka in the 1999 World Cup.
Saturday's match will decide Australia's opponent in the final in Kolkata.
