• Home
  • Cricket News
  • Watch Patna Ground Staff Use Dung Cake To Dry Wet Surface For Bihars Ranji Trophy Match

[Watch] Patna Ground Staff Use Dung Cake To Dry Wet Surface For Bihar's Ranji Trophy Match

Pune ground staff during Ranji Trophy 2024 [Source: @SantadeepDey/x]Pune ground staff during Ranji Trophy 2024 [Source: @SantadeepDey/x]

The ground staff of the Moin-ul-Haq Stadium in Pune came up with an interesting way to dry the playing field after the Ranji Trophy 2024 Elite Group C match between Bihar and Karnataka was delayed due to rains. On October 27, i.e., during Day 2 of the four-day match, several groundsmen were spotted burning dung cake to dry the surface.

The video of the same has since gone viral on social media, thus signifying a swift decline in the cricketing infrastructure in the country, primarily in domestic competitions.

Dung Cake used to dry pitch in Ranji Trophy

The cricketing infrastructure seems to have stooped to a new low for domestic matches in India, after a certain video went viral on social media where members of the ground staff of the Moin-ul-Haq Stadium were seemingly spotted burning dung cakes for drying up a wet surface.


The Ranji Trophy 2024 Elite Group C match between Karnataka and hosts Bihar has been largely affected by weather so far. Only 59 overs were bowled on Day 1 of the match, while the entirety of Day 2 was called off due to wet outfield.

Winning the toss and opting to field first, Karnataka bowlers bundled out hosts Bihar for just 143 in 55.5 overs of the first innings. Opening batter Sharman Nigrodh top-scored with 60 runs for Bihar, in an innings that otherwise featured as many as six single-digit scores, and two other scores of 13 and 16 by Sakibul Gani and Raghuvendra Pratap Singh respectively. Bipin Saurabh’s swift 31 turned out to be the next biggest benefactor of the innings after Nigrodh’s half-century.

For Karnataka, spinners Shreyas Gopal (4-28) and Mohsin Khan (3-50) collectively claimed seven wickets between them, while right-arm pace trio of Vasuki Koushik, Vijaykumar Vyshak and Vidyadhar Patil chipped in with a wicket each.

Karnataka openers faced three overs before early stumps to reach 16-0 later in the day. The match marks the third respective fixture for both winless teams this competition.