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The defining feature of the pitches at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba, Trinidad during the group stages of the T20 World Cup was variable bounce. Some balls spat up from a good length, while others skidded through low - perhaps most notably, the pea-roller which accounted for Azmatullah Omarzai against Papua New Guinea.
The square was relaid before the World Cup and preparations were hit by rain in the build-up to the opening game at the venue, West Indies' win over New Zealand. New Zealand were not happy with the quality of training pitches on offer, and cut their session an hour short on the eve of the match. "It was deemed not really acceptable," Gary Stead, their coach, said.
Samuel Badree, who has commentated on dozens of games at the Brian Lara Academy, believes that the variable bounce owes to the "patchiness" of the surface.
"There are lots of areas with grass and then there are lots of bare areas, which makes it so difficult because you can't predict the bounce of the pace," he told ESPNcricinfo. "Some balls turn, some don't turn, some bounce, some keep low. It's challenging for the batters - and there's a significant dew factor as well."
But Daren Ganga, another regular commentator at the venue across the CPL and international cricket, believes that the bounce will be truer in Wednesday night's semi-final between Afghanistan and South Africa after remedial work over the past two weeks.
"They have adapted the pitch to have more of an even covering of grass density along the cracks," Ganga told ESPNcricinfo. "The grass in the cracks is what has created the variability in bounce and pace. That's going to change and that's going to improve. It's going to be a higher-scoring venue. You wouldn't see that variability again: I can assure you of that."
The central strip - pitch No. 5 - will be used, meaning that there will not be a short boundary for batters to target. "It's probably a 155-160 par type of pitch," Ganga predicted. Scores were significantly lower in the four group games there, in part because three Associate teams batted first in matches against Full Members.
The pitches have proved hard to predict in the venue's short history, since its completion in 2017. In December, England racked up 267 for 3 there thanks to Phil Salt's second successive hundred; two nights later, on the same strip, they were spun out for 132 in a tight defeat. It suggests that the surface can change quickly.
T20 World Cup stats:Matches: 4 Average first-innings score: 91 Average runs per over: 5.48 Defending wins: 1 Chasing wins: 3
All T20Is stats since July 2022:Matches: 8 Average first-innings score: 138 Average runs per over: 7.18 Defending wins: 4 Chasing wins: 4
