NEW DELHI - New South Wales Blues captain Simon Katich feels that experience will play a crucial role in adapting to challenging conditions on Indian pitches in the Champions League Twenty20.

The Australian opener scored a classy 53 on a slow track at the Ferozeshah Kotla stadium to steer Blues to a convincing 53-run win over South Africa’s Diamond Eagles here Friday.

Coming in to bat in the second over, Katich quickly adapted to the slow and low nature of the track and relied on timing and hit the ball crisply on both sides of the wickets.

“Initially I had some problems in adapting to the slow nature of the track. But experience counts even as Twenty20 might be a young mans game. If you look at the IPL in South Africa, experienced batsmen like Matthew Hayden, Rahul Dravid and Adam Gilchrist were successful, said the 34-year-old batsman.

Katich said that after four-five overs he realised that a score of 144 could be defended on the track.

“With the kind of bowling attack we have, I was confident that anything between 140-150 could be defended. (Brett) Lee and Stuart (Clark) were exceptional and even young guy Moises Henriques bowled well. But we shouldnt forget our spinner Nathan Hauritz, he was outstanding, he said.

Katich said that he was not bothered whether matches are played on slow or bouncy tracks.

It doesnt matter on what track you are playing as long as the competition is good, he said.

Eagles captain Boeta Dippennar also said that his batsmen failed to adjust to slow nature of the track.

“It was a low track and we could not adapt to the conditions. But we cant blame the track for our loss. We played badly, he said.