Ireland Coach Criticizes New York Pitch, Emphasizes Need for Quality Surfaces

Ireland’s head coach Heinrich Malan has expressed strong criticism of the pitch at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium following their T20 World Cup Group A match against India. Malan underscored the importance of good playing surfaces, noting that the recent conditions have fallen short of expectations. India secured an eight-wicket victory after dismissing Ireland for…


Ireland’s head coach Heinrich Malan has expressed strong criticism of the pitch at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium following their T20 World Cup Group A match against India. Malan underscored the importance of good playing surfaces, noting that the recent conditions have fallen short of expectations. India secured an eight-wicket victory after dismissing Ireland for a mere 96 runs, with the pitch showing excessive swing and variable bounce.

To play the game well, you need a top-quality surface, and unfortunately, the pitches we’ve seen recently haven’t met that standard. Hopefully, in the coming days, the pitch will improve, allowing for better cricket on Friday,

Malan stated at the post-match press conference.

Earlier in the week, Sri Lanka was bowled out for 77 on the same challenging pitch, leading to a South African victory. As Ireland prepares to face Canada on Friday and India faces Pakistan on Sunday, the quality of the New York pitches will be under intense scrutiny.

We all want to see good cricket, right? It’s the highlight of our event. It doesn’t always have to be high-scoring, but it should be a fair contest. Looking at today’s match, that’s debatable,

added Malan.

India’s fast bowlers, led by Hardik Pandya’s 3-27, dominated the match by taking eight wickets collectively. Ireland’s batting lineup struggled to adjust to the difficult pitch, with Gareth Delany being the only notable scorer with 26 runs, contributing to small partnerships for the ninth and tenth wickets.

When we were struggling, we aimed for a score of 130-140, believing we could defend it with strong bowling. However, the way India bowled upfront was extremely challenging. We had to revise our game plan several times, but things didn’t go as we hoped. Mike Tyson said, ‘Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face,’ and there was some serious bowling today.

India has three or four top-tier fast bowlers who have consistently performed at this level. We communicated well, but executing under pressure against such quality bowling is a different challenge,

Malan remarked.

He concluded by saying that despite their efforts to study the pitch in New York, it did not prepare them adequately for the match against India.

We did our best to research the pitch’s behavior, even though we didn’t get to train on it. We spoke with the groundsman, and the scores from the warm-up game on this surface were entirely different. We didn’t expect it to play out the way it did, but we need to improve our execution, which we’ll reflect on moving forward.