In a major setback on the opening day of the knockout matches of the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy season, the encounter between Gujarat and Odisha at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium in Jaipur has been stopped after the players walked off owing to the poor condition of the pitch.
After Odisha won the toss and elected to field, their bowlers got their side off to a good start, removing two top-order wickets cheaply, but concerns over the conditions began to emerge when Parthiv Patel was struck early on in his innings in his arm and following that, the players began to return to the pavilion.
The umpires then had a deep discussion even as the groundsmen spent time rolling one side of the pitch, and have constantly pointing at the area where the ball pitched and jumped and hit the Gujarat wicket-keeper.
An administrator at the venue told Cricbuzz that it was Patel, who complained to the umpires after being hit and then called out both captains for a discussion.
This is not the first time that an Indian ground has come under the scanner. An India-Sri Lanka game at the Ferozshah Kotla in New Delhi in 2009 also saw a similar incident occur, when some of the Sri Lankan batsmen suffered blows on their body and eventually the players had leave the field and the match was called off a short while later.
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