No Mark, only one person seems to be suggesting that may have been the case at Trent Bridge.

Pictches can be prepared to suit the strengths of the home side. I can't claim to remotely understand the technicalities but, say in India, you might expect a ground to take a lot of spin, in England maybe a nice wicket for seamers (you land the ball on the seam and instead of bouncing off straight, it moves a little to one side or other), etc.

In situations like the Trent Bridge one, it is a huge advantage to bat first. The pitch was dry and developing cracks which get worse as time goes on. The result of such a pitch is that it becomes very unpredictable. One ball may bounce and reach the batsman say at hip height and the next one that is bowled at around the same speed and appears to land at more or less the same spot could bounce and reach the batsman at ankle height. If you consider the ball could be travelling between say 80-90mph, the batsman has little time (fraction of a second) to react to the ball that does something strange.

A good start for England today - SA 10 for 2 as I type.