Actually wicket is extremely poor - it's not exposed because of the size of the ground. I am not sure about the measurement, but this ground isn't longer than NZ. Old days, Sharjah boundary used to be the fence still it was one of the shortest that time, now they have pulled it inside enough to place the commentary box & other fun staffs.
Batting isn't the best of it's quality, but certainly not as poor as the scorecard tells. Besides, that batting order .... One thing I have heard from that PAK groundsman last time is that, in his book, you take out every bit of grass, if required put salt water to kill the green grass up to root ..... it becomes batting paradise, which is a dumb idea even for his standard. This Sharjah wicket is 35 years old (under this same guy) and due to the extreme heat, the soil content becomes dust quickly with very little clay. With watering, they can make it a bit faster (looks shiny) for first few overs, but after that it gets slower & lower - with rain, today is probably a bit uneven as well and spin is gripping because of bonding the top layer. Perth weather is similar in nature and they used to put 89-91% clay over a rock bed, on that old WACA track, which became like concrete slab. This one is horrible wicket to bat, actually for cricket - even Tamim was struggling for timing after first few overs. You can't judge batsman (anyone) on this track.
:
?
by Hussain.
