Calcutta: If the fans returned disappointed on Tuesday it was not just because Kolkata Knight Riders suffered their second consecutive defeat in the Indian Premier League. A lot of it had to do with the crowd not getting their money’s worth as far as strokeplay was concerned.

While the lights didn’t disappoint, the talking point remained the wicket. Stroke makers struggled as the ball wasn’t coming on to the bat. The consensus was that the wicket was far from ideal for a Twenty20 game.

Till late afternoon on Tuesday, BCCI grounds and pitches committee chief Daljit Singh, along with curator Kalyan Mitra, continued with the rolling and watering on the earmarked strip.

“Rolling and watering will make the surface more compact… It will help the batsmen,” Daljit said some hours before the start.

In reality, however, the batsmen struggled to play their shots. An influential CAB official, however, had a different story to tell.

“You cannot expect Mitra to prepare a good wicket by keeping Mahesh Shaw out of the frame. Shaw knows every blade of the Eden grass. You’ve got to pay heed to his advice.”

Sambaran Banerjee said the slow and low nature of the track is a result of too much watering. “The wicket for the first match was under-prepared. This is slightly better… You can’t expect the curator to produce a miracle in such a short span.

“Too much watering has made it slow and low. It’s not an ideal wicket for this format… The ball should come onto the bat and help the strokeplayers,” explained the former Bengal captain.

Arun Lal felt it had a lot with its character. “The ball doesn’t tend to come on to the bat at this time of the year. I’ve played a lot here and know this for a fact. This is the inherent nature of the wicket,” the former India opener said.

“Frankly, I’m not for one dimensional cricket… It just cannot be a batsman’s game. There should be something in it for the bowlers as well,” Lal added.

Devang Gandhi said the wicket needed to be overhauled. “The wicket has improved but is still not an ideal Twenty20 wicket. This slowness is the nature of the Eden wicket… The soil needs to be changed for better results.

“People come to see fours and sixes here… A batsman should be able to play shots,” the former India cricketer said.