Didn’t expect so much assistance to Ashwin from pitch: Markram

TIL Desk Sports/ South African opener Aiden Markram said they were surprised by the nature of the pitch in Centurion after Ravichandran Ashwin took 3-90 to restrict them to 269 for 6 at stumps on day one of the second Test.

“We didn’t expect there to be so much assistance for him. Ashwin was difficult to face. He is difficult to face on a flat wicket as well, so it did work out well for him I suppose,” Markram said.

“He still had to bowl well so you need to give him some credit. It will be interesting to see if the pitch will get harder and if it will continue to spin like it did, or if it spun like that because of the grass covering. We’ll see in the next couple of days,” he said after the day’s play.

Markram, who missed out of a century after being dismissed by Ashwin, heaped praise on the bowler. “Ashwin is a world class bowler. He always asking the right questions and he sets smart fields. It is not easy out there. I don’t think he would have expected to bowl as much today judging on how last week went,” he said.

“They would have expected something similar. But he is a world-class bowler and it was a good challenge to get out there and face him,” he added. Markram, who scored 94, provided a good base for South Africa to build a huge score on. However, they failed to grasp the situation later in the day.