South Africa spinner Simon Harmer has shared his thoughts on the pitch being used for the ongoing first Test against India at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, calling it “a lot better” than the surfaces served for the 2015 series.

The Eden track has become the centre of debate after 16 wickets fell on Day 2. Resuming at 37/1, the hosts were bowled out for 189, but Ravindra Jadeja (4/29) and Kuldeep Yadav (2/12) reduced the Proteas to 93/7 at stumps, with the visitors holding a slender lead of 63 runs.

The pitch came under severe scrutiny after the second day’s play, with many labelling it as “unsporting”. However, Harmer believes such criticism is unwarranted, insisting that the surfaces used during South Africa’s 2015 tour were significantly worse.

“The wickets in 2015 were probably worse. If I think about the wicket in Mohali, it basically disintegrated on day one, and Nagpur was the same — I can remember craters on the wicket. The ball has spun, but it hasn’t been every single ball. Look, India want to win the Test match and they want to play on wickets that suit them, so we’ve got to find a way to beat them in their own conditions,” Harmer said at the end of Day 2.

Continuing his strong form from the Pakistan tour, Harmer claimed four wickets in the first innings in Kolkata to restrict India’s first-innings lead to 30 runs.

Despite batting collapses from both sides, Harmer remains hopeful about South Africa’s chances as batting in the fourth innings would pose significant challenge to the home team.

“I wouldn’t say I’m frustrated because there’s still a lot of cricket to be played, and I believe we can put our best foot forward and fight our way to a total. I think there was a stat today showing there’s only been one total of over 100 chased in the fourth innings here, so we need to get as many runs as we can and get past 100. If we can get to 150, that would be incredible, but it’s obviously difficult at the moment, runs are hard to come by,” Harmer remarked.

There have been only five successful fourth innings chases at Eden Gardens in the stadium’s long history. Only one score over 100 has been successfully chased, which coincidentally came against South Africa in 2004 as India overhauled 117 to win by eight wickets.