SA vs IND: Rain threat in Boxing Day Test, Centurion track to help pacers, says Curator Bryan Bloy

The Supersport Park track at Centurion could pose significant challenges for the batters in the upcoming Test match between India and South Africa, according to curator Bryan Bloy. He mentioned that the fast bowlers might find favorable conditions, as rain was expected, potentially affecting play on the first and a substantial part of the second day. With the anticipated heavy rain, a decrease in temperature is likely, which might limit support for spinners on the pitch.

“Temperature will be super low, like 20 degrees. The temperature is now 34 and it will drop to 20. I don’t know what conditions will be like, whether we will get play on Day 1,” Bloy told PTI.

“Hopefully we will get some play and it will be cool on Day 3 and I don’t know how many turns will be available.”

The opening Test begins on December 26. Bloy believes that batting first will be difficult if the track remains covered.

“I can’t guarantee the forecast but if it remains undercover for the better part of the two days then that might be tricky to bat first because it’s been covered for so long and hasn’t been rolled for so long, we don’t know how long we will have to get the field ready for play in the current situation. So if it’s a Day-3, 10 am start, it doesn’t give us much time, because it’s in the morning and you start playing at 10 and really three hours of cool weather and early morning will be tricky. If it’s covered for two days, I would presume bowlers would benefit from it.”

“Our goal is to stick to the characteristics, not do anything different or out of the ordinary. I want it to be a typical hard wicket as per Centurion’s conditions. The wicket is quite green, and we have got two more days and it’s hot, with a bit more rolling, it would lose a bit more colour, but I am happy that there is a thin even coverage of grass. Looks good.” However, there could be some bad news for Ravichandran Ashwin because Bloy is unsure how much purchase spinners will get if it rains.