The captains of both Diamond Eagles and New South Wales were critical of the newly-laid Ferozeshah Kotla pitch, saying it was far from ideal for Twenty20 cricket.
Although Eagles captain Boeta Dippenaar conceded that his team did not play its best cricket, he felt the wicket had a role in the South African side's 53-run defeat in the opening Group B match in the Champions League.
Captain Simon Katich hit a classy half century and Stuart Clark scalped three wickets as New South Wales easily emerged victorious.
"We didn't play well, we didn't adapt to the conditions well, and, I must say, the conditions were really tough. The bounce wasn't great, particularly when you are coming from lively South African conditions.
"The wicket wasn't close to what we have played in the three practice games," Dippenar said at the post-match press conference.
Asked whether he was aware that the Kotla pitch was a newly-laid one, the Eagles captain replied, "Yeah, we were aware that it was a newly-laid wicket. We knew it will play slow, but not as much as it has played today."
The Eagles bowlers did a decent job, restricting the formidable NSW batting line-up to a modest 144 on the low and slow pitch, but Dippenaar felt his bowlers bowled well in patches and gave 20 runs extra to the Aussie side.
"120 was a good score on this wicket. Our bowlers at times bowled well, and at times they were wayward," he said.
His New South Wales counterpart Simon Katich, who scored 53, echoed similar feelings and said playing shots on the wicket was difficult from the onset.
"We won the toss but we were quite not sure how the wicket was going to play. Initially it was difficult to play shots, but once we got the start, it became easy," the left-hander said.
"To be honest, whenever you play Twenty20 cricket, wickets are always good, but today it was low and slow."
He said once they put on 144 on the board, they were confident of winning the match.
"After the first six overs we felt 140-150 is a good score on this wicket," Katich said.
He felt with the international experience of Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Doug Bollinger, Nathan Hauritz and David Warner its rank, the Australian side has an edge over other sides in the cash-rich tournament.
"We do have a lot of international guys in our team but we don't play as much Twenty20 cricket as England does. But to have Lee upfront and Stuart Clark, Doug Bollinger, Nathan Hauritz and David Warner with plenty of plenty of experience behind them it is always an advantage to us.
"We've quite a few options in the bowling department," Katich added.
