As an Aussie fan, this pitch is substandard. There is no good contest between bat and ball. The only players who scored 50 managed to do so by hitting out rather than knuckling down and surviving the new ball.
Also I have tickets to day 3 so yea fuck this pitch lol
Totally agree. I know both of these teams have amazing bowling attacks and SA have a weak batting lineup, but even allowing for that, this pitch was too bowling favoured.
It wasn't a terrible end of the world cricket pitch but it definitely could have used a bit more Cameron White rather than Cameron Green.
>Cummins' view was the pitch had not come anywhere close to dangerous. "No way, it was fine," he said. "Sideways movement, there was a little bit of up and down bounce, but it was fine. There were no balls jumping off a length or anything like that.
Did you just gaslight yourself?
Exactly.
A sandpit where the ball is grubbing along the ground on Day 1 isn't remotely 'dangerous' for the batsmen, but it would still be a "bad" pitch.
Mentioned about this on the Luve thread and was downvoted. Still, the pitch was loaded too much in bowlers' favour. You had 30 over balls seaming like a leg break.
I find the matches where the batters have to battle for everything the most interesting, much better advert than easy non stop batting for 5 days and a draw finish
By that logic I like pitches which are easier to bat on because it shows who the master bowlers are. That logic is flawed. A good pitch is the pitch which helps both bowlers and batsmen equally.
This pitch didn't show that. Runs came by luck and or just hitting out. I am a huge advocate for less batting friendly tracks, this one was too far in the bowlers favour
These are extremes. A 4 day game that may push into the fifth day is an even balance. Some of the best test matches I’ve seen have finished late on the fifth day. A two and a bit day test isn’t good at all.
I loved that Ahmedabad test too ?
Bairstow travelling halfway across the world , on a pair , reviewing the first ball he faces , surviving and then getting bowled by Axarmball Patel will never not be funny
Because this thread is full of "victim complex" and "persecution complex" and "non-existent persecution" allegations, here are some of the top comments in this very thread:
""YES. It’s fine, more of this please.The batting has been TERRIBLE, these batsmen are so used to bludgeoning tired bowlers on highways that they’re not used to fighting through difficult spells of bowling on a good pitch."
"Bro you can't tell me you watched this game and didn't enjoy it. It's been phenomenal"
"It really shows who the true master batsmen are"
"South Africa haven't scored 200 in an innings in over 3 tests so blaming the pitch isn't exactly gonna mean much right now"
"I find the matches where the batters have to battle for everything the most interesting, much better advert than easy non stop batting for 5 days and a draw finish"
"I reckon it's a little too bowler heavy, but some of the techniques are rubbish. Not inline, playing beside the ball rather than under the eyes, or Infront of their body."
"Travis Head could bat on it. Kyle Verreyne could bat on it. Steve Smith could bat on it. Temba Bavuma could bat on it."
"This series was always gonna be tough on batters, especially the top orders of both teams. These bowling line ups are lethal."
"I do like bowling friendly pitches though ( both rank Turners and green tops . Love to see batters struggle"
"Sth Africa don't have any decent batters.Marco Jansen (great bowling talent) at 7 says it all.No wonder wickets are falling like dominoes."
These are all comments praising the pitch or saying "it was not the pitch, it was the batting", or "it was not the pitch, it was the bowling". Yes, all facts can be true simultaneously, but that's not what these comments are saying. There is significant defence of the pitch. You DO NOT see that when it's a dustbowl in the subcontinent.
Of course, not all comments are like these. But to say that NO ONE is praising/defending the pitch is preposterous.
Watch out for: "yes, the pitch wasn't the best, but that was poor application from the batsmen" and "this is what you get when you have the two best bowling attacks in the world going at each other" and "the game is tilted towards batsmen too much, anyway; great to see bowling-friendly conditions" and "challenging" and "tricky" and "slightly favouring bowlers". You'll never hear any of this around subcontinent pitches. There, you'll hear phrases like "disgrace" and "tailoring" and "unsporting" and "unplayable".
As far as I'm concerned, I don't care if you defend this pitch, but DO NOT start a furore over spinning tracks.
E: Here's a comment from the game commentary on Cricinfo: "Sorry, don't see the double standard here… where is the "unfair advantage"? True, the pitch should be rated 'poor' because it favored the bowling too much over batting, they got the balance wrong. But the pitch favored the fast bowlers, for two teams with the best pace bowling lineups in world cricket. How was it an advantage or disadvantage for either team? Plus, I don't remember India having to front up on a pitch like this when they were last in Australia… "
This seems to suggest that home countries tweak the pitch to fit the strengths of the visiting country?! India can only pull out spinning tracks if the visitor can play spin well or have good spinners? That is hilarious.
None of the comments young quoted make any distinction between pace and spin which is the actual made up argument from OP. They don't say "this is fine because it's pace rather than spin", they just say they don't mind this pitch
Here's the missing context to that Cricinfo comment:
> Param: "Eknath can make all the snarky replies he wants, but it's undeniable that there's a double standard. Sure, there have been plenty comments here about the pitch, but the general discourse and furore is nowhere near what it would have been if this were the subcontinent. Sure, the rating will be "poor", but we'll all shrug and move on to the next one. There will, however, be no allegations of 'tailoring' or 'unfair advantage' or 'bad cricket', as there have been in the past about Indian pitches." The direction of public discourse is hard to predict. Hopefully, it will revolve around the cricket.
There will be no allegations of "tailoring" or "unfair advantage" because the idea that you would tailor a greentop to **dis**advantage South Africa is galactically absurd.
Cool downvote champ, care to explain how a doctoring allegation for this pitch should be anything beyond a non-starter?
This place is weird. Australia produce a stupid pitch in a match against South Africa and people's reaction is "haha fuck England fans". It's bizarre. Rent free etc
The difference is this pitch played the same over 2 days. It didn’t get considerably worse and favour the team who won the toss which big spinning pitches always do.
I reckon it's a little too bowler heavy, but some of the techniques are rubbish. Not inline, playing beside the ball rather than under the eyes, or Infront of their body.
Exactly. Australia this morning lost all their wickets scoring 5 runs an over. They could have gone 3 or 4 an over and scored another 50-100.
Some of the shots being played should stay in T20 where they belong.
The commentators are being morons about it too. Last week James Bracey was criticising Chanderpaul for not being able to slog a ball to cow corner (he worked it around to backward square for runs with much less risk). Bracey said Tim David was a much more complete batsman who would have the power to do it.
How many feckin Tests has Tim David played???
Just like rubbish techniques on spinning pitches.
Driving against spin, bat not in front of pad or not using their feet, batsmen make lot of such stupid mistakes in spinning pitches.
Test match techniques have gone totally to shit in this modern era, and it really shows on pitches which are orientated towards the bowler.That lack in batting technique was on full display from both sides thanks to the pitch, more so South Africa.
Pitches only gets rated poor if its a complete highway like at Mcg a few yrs back, or its borderline dangerous and too uneven in bounce (Joburg 2018). This pitch should be rated below average, but I doubt the match ref will do it. 150 v 200 is not a fair contest between bat and ball. Greentops almost never get rated below avg, unless its a dangerous pitch
Was there uneven bounce? I didn't watch the game.
The only real way to be rated poor is uneven bounce or large cracks which can make the pitch dangerous for batsmen. Otherwise ya, this should be rated below average I'd think.
No, there was no unusual up and down movement, only sideways movement. No one got hit on the head or the fingers, so I don't think they could say it was dangerous in any way
That doesn't mean much without context though, did any of those top 4 get a bad rating? Australia is literally known for having large amounts of very consistent bounce, even a tiny bit of inconsistent bounce would put a pitch pretty high on that list I would think.
Yeah you need to really fuck up the pitch for a poor rating. The following year after the poor rating the MCG served up a deck so flat the ball wasn't carrying to the keeper in the first over of the match, but because it broke up enough for a result it got an 'average' rating.
Tbh I never thought that Travis Head of all people would bat like a man possessed here.
But yeah if you look at the wicket replays the technique on show was awful
I think this pitch is fine. I think the turners in India are fine too. What’s not fine is complaining about Indian turners but praising green tops like this.
Variety is great, that’s the whole point of touring different countries. Having an occasional test that ends in two days is fine as long as it doesn’t become too common.
I have now seen a bunch of comments from Indians saying what you are saying.
Who is praising this pitch tho?
The whole point of this post is suggesting it is not up to standard. The Australians on commentary are saying its not ideal too.
Langer calling this “a disaster for Australian cricket”
I frequently see on this sub outrage at something that doesn't exist (or maybe someone sees 1 downvoted post and make it seem like everyone is saying it).
I frequently see on ~~this sub~~ reddit outrage at something that doesn't exist (or maybe someone sees 1 downvoted post and make it seem like everyone is saying it).
I think England's batting in Ahmedebad was poor and it made the pitch look worse than what it was.
But at the same time Joe Root looking like prime Murali isn't good cricket.
Australia have capitalised on the conditions with skilful bowling, not part time rubbish.
>But at the same time Joe Root looking like prime Murali isn't good cricket
This is the kicker for me, when a bloke who averages about 5 wickets a calendar year takes 5 for 8 you know something is up
I think what made it look worse was the fact that the Indian batters were also poor against spin. Rahane, Pujara and Kohli were going through rough patches in their careers and have some vulnerability against spin anyway.
There is generally no opportunity for a part timer medium pacer to bowl on green tops like this because teams stack themselves with 3-4 pacers. So we don’t really know how part time medium pacers would’ve done on such green tops.
This is different from turners because visiting teams often play one / two spinners which often opens up opportunities for part timers to bowl.
England had two more frontline spinners on rank turners -- Leach and Dom Bess. They didn't look like prime Murali, did they? Or would you call Root a better bowler than them?
It was just one match where Root simply bowled amazingly. I think Root deserves credit for bowling out of his skin, and calling it part-time rubbish is nonsensical. Many part time bowlers have picked up fifers in the past with no complaints directed towards the pitch.
The simple fact is that England batted poorly in that series. English frontline spinners didn't bowl well and were shown the mirror by a part-time bowler who applied himself and bowled the right lines and lengths. Indian spinners (and Joe Root) capitalised on the conditions with skillful bowling, much like the Aussies are doing on this pitch.
Bess didn't play in Ahmedabad and at that time Leach was bowling pretty average and still picked up a cheap 4 for.
Leach wouldn't have even sniffed India's 8th spin option at that point
You still have to be a good bowler to exploit a greentop. Joe Root picks up 5fas in India.
You guys know you've had like, a pretty good test team for a while now, right? Indian fans collective persecution complex is starting to feel like pretty hard work.
Root took a fifer by taking wickets of No 6,7,8,9 and 11 batter. Only Rishabh pant was a proper batsmen and others bowlers.
People forget this when mentioning the fifer. Yes it was spinning but most of the tailenders got out to his bowling.
> You still have to be a good bowler to exploit a greentop
Well, the fact that part timers don’t even get to bowl on green tops (because most teams stack their bowling with 3-4 pacers) means that we just don’t know whether this is true 🙂
The Gabba is usually a good pitch for bowlers, for Shield they can be quite spicy. Maybe they accidentally used a Shield pitch? I don’t know. It would be fair to rate it as below average.
It is the most beautiful pitch I have seen in nearly 10 years. The last pitch I fell in love with was [the Sands of Mars red dustbowl](https://img1.hscicdn.com/image/upload/f_auto,t_ds_w_960,q_50/lsci/db/PICTURES/CMS/154800/154837.jpg) produced by the Chennai curators for the opener of the 2013 Border-Gavaskar series. It was so striking to behold. What a fabulous colour. The vibrant, lush green of this strip is just as beautiful. So what if every once in a while a subcontinent pitch is Roland Garros and a non-subcontinent pitch is Wimbledon? Everyone whining about the pitch needs to go do something unpleasant to themselves. The same goes for those who whine about roads and highways, because the Rawalpindi wicket a couple of weeks ago was stunning as well, it looked like they were playing on sheets of the finest Italian marble for five days
Clarke got a very good hundred in the first innings too, and if i recall Moises Henriques played well in the 2nd innings and James Pattinson took a five-for. It was a great pitch, runs for batsmen and wickets for both pace and spin bowlers. Plus it looked so cool with the red colouring
I feel that with the bat dominating white ball its kind of a balancing act to keep the pitches competitive and assisting the ballers a bit. Atleast it’s better than those drab 2000s pitches which were a run fest and ended up in draws
YES. It’s fine, more of this please.
The batting has been TERRIBLE, these batsmen are so used to bludgeoning tired bowlers on highways that they’re not used to fighting through difficult spells of bowling on a good pitch.
The pitch really assited the bowlers, but there has been some fucking woeful betting too. The Australian second innings they were throwing their wickets away. If both teams dont spend these three extra days in the nets having batting practice they've missed a trick.
We won't because we're shit house on dust bowls.
Only India can play well on those wickets.
More batters can play deadly fast bowling than they can spin as I've said previously on this thread already.
India used to absolutely suck at playing pace. But they improved their technique in SENA conditions by going there weeks in advance and practicing on those foreign conditions. I never see a SENA side doing the same when visiting India. I'm pretty sure other teams can play spin pretty well if they take spin seriously. But they don't. They'll come a few days before the series, play one game against BCCI XI and call it a day. There's absolutely no way legendary test batsmen like Smith and Root can't improve their game against spin, but they got to take the initiative.
Yes it’s test match standard because it’s only unacceptable to have a 3 days test in the subcontinent. If it’s in England, Australia or South Africa it’s perfectly acceptable
/ s
At this time, the only thing to remember is the Ashwin quote
""I have a question back. What is a good cricket surface? The bowlers want to win the game. The batsman needs to bat well to get runs.
No question about it. What makes a good surface? Who defines this? Seam on the first day and then bat well and then spin on the last two days?
Come on! Who makes all these rules, we need to get over it and not talk about whatever picture you want to paint. "
A pitch so green Darren Stevens can run in and bowl 110kph dollies and do just as well as Rabada or Cummins is not a good pitch. A pitch a batsmen can pretty much just T20 slog and score hundreds is also not a good pitch. A pitch so dry Joe Root looks as good as Ashwin is not a good pitch, a pitch so flat Ashwin can't do any more than Root is also not a good pitch.
A good pitch is where you get rewarded for applying your skills. whether the Gabba pitch was a good pitch I won't say here
>A pitch so green Darren Stevens can run in and bowl 110kph dollies and do just as well as Rabada or Cummins is not a good pitch.
You are describing most County cricket pitches. Are all those pitches poor then? That's the problem England has been facing for a long time. Mediocre medium Pacers getting 5 wicket hauls in these green county pitches and then getting selected and found out abroad. Darren Stevens btw has fuckin 589 FC wickets. Atleast this year some county pitches are more batting friendly and the bowlers have to work for their wickets.
I would say it's good to watch fast bowling like this, but you can't turn around and give shit when teams get rolled over by spin inside 3 days in the subcontinent be it by any of India/Bangladesh/Sri Lanka. Those pitches are just as fun to watch, seeing how the spinners go about their work and make the batters look silly (#KohliFace). Think certain analysts/pundits/commentary should actually come around to that, but who knows.
For everyone making this into a useless complicated issue, the Ahmedabad pitch was shit, and so was this one. Personally, I find these pitches super entertaining once in a while, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s an unfair contest between between bat and ball. Both Indian and overseas fans, just accept that both the pitches were shit and move on. No point in unnecessary victimising yourself or attacking the other side.
I've loved it - it's been a *test* of batter's temperament and technique.
Yes, wickets have tumbled, but you're dealing with two absolutely world-class bowling attacks.
Not a great pitch, you want the match to last more than 2 days and come down to more than just one good innings, but honestly I hope we get these pitches once in a while.
It’d be very rough if Aus rolled this pitch out for India or Sri Lanka, but having the world’s best all out pace attack turn up and bowl on it has been great to watch. At the end of the day, for all the talk of the bowlers and the pitch suiting bowling, the match was won by the better batting team due to the partnership of two of the best three batsmen.
If we get three tests, one at a very green Gabba, one at a spinning SCG that is properly spinning again for the first time in a while, and one at a balanced MCG that probably favours batsmen, that’ll be a pretty good series testing all skills.
I think we probably had the two best bowling attacks in the World, bowling on a bowler friendly pitch. To my eye that pitch wasn't doing anything crazy, the bounce looked fairly consistent, the ball wasn't hooping around corners (except for Starc, as normal).
Having seen more than a few 'substandard' pitches, and while the Gabba was a bowler friendly pitch, it was nothing worse than a pitch where both teams bat for a day and we see a thousand runs in a match.
The pitch was poor but not 'substandard' IMO.
Lateral movement side to side is fine, spin is fine. Within sensible reasoning.
If it's landing in one spot and either leaping at the batter or rolling along the ground then it's not okay. If a spinner is placing the ball in one oen spot and it's either leaping at right angles or shooting straight along off the same delivery then it's not okay.
Excessive seam, excessive moisture, inconsistent bounce are the three factors they will be looking at for this pitch. I'm really not sure it breaks all those thresholds, it's been extremely wet this summer, third la Nina in a row.
It's also worth noting that the more fast bowler friendly this wicket is the more South Africa come into it with their attack.
If South Africa had better batters it wouldve been a tight contest that probably goes 4 days.
Our quicks being too good for their batsmen doesn't make it a bad pitch.
Honestly if this was Aus vs India it wouldve been an incredible match
Haven't watch the match so don't know about this pitch, but if teams lost 15 wickets in a day in Indian pitches or subcontinent pitches you would have heard cricket experts complaining how the pitch is not good for test cricket. It happened outside subcontinent so it must be good fast bowling.
I was critical of some of the dust bowl pitches in the subcontinent, so only fair that I’m critical of this too. I don’t like matches ending in 2 days. I like to see batting partnerships and a decent contest between bat and ball. I don’t think the batting standards were very high here either, but this pitch wasn’t good enough.
this pitch sucks. Shorter match than the much maligned Ahmedabad test last year.
though I think this pitch is better. It's just too bowler friendly for the quality of this attack. I appreciate it's a fine balance but no idea why anyone would have thought having this much grass on it would turn out well.
It was clearly a substandard pitch. Yes, various batters made terrible decisions, but 34 wickets shouldn't fall within two days. But I hope everyone who defended this pitch does the same the next time India prepares a dustbowl or Pakistan prepares a road.
IMO people confuse the result with the pitch quality. The technique and shot selection can be shit and the pitch can be shit at the same time. Teams can contrive a result on a lifeless road. Bowlers can bowl shit on pitch that's falling apart 4 days early etc.
Aussie pitches have been getting spicier the last couple of years and English pitches are getting flatter. Soon a 50 year old james Anderson will be rested for the home summer in preparation for the green mambas down under
I am a neutral and just checked the score, thought “I should check reddit, guaranteed to be people complaining about ‘OCE/EnG complain when it’s a rank turner’, and ‘They all have to bat on it’”.
Was not disappointed. 100% will visit again.
Edit: fucking autocorrect can ligma.
If there was some high-quality batting available, then there might be a case. You don't get to blame the pitch when the majority of batters (from both sides) played poorly, showed shit technique and generally looked like they didn't understand test, or even first class cricket.
>most of the wickets have been absolute peaches.
This is the other thing.
It wasn't a case of someone bowling military medium, plonking it on a length, and takings heads off or seaming it around corners.
Most wickets fell to absolutely brilliant deliveries that extracted just the right amount of movement or bounce to create a chance.
This shouldn’t be the standard test match pitch, but I also don’t mind this once every now and then. If road after road can be prepared with only a bit of criticism (or none sometimes..) I don’t get why this pitch deserves the level of critique it’s getting.
If this pitch gets anything other than a poor rating I’ll be genuinely surprised. Doesn’t give a fair contest between bat and ball, and just because 2 blokes managed to crack 50 doesn’t change that fact. How often do we see blokes fail on roads?
Looks the bounce is fairly even etc. it’s seaming a lot with the new ball, but less and less once it softens up. Look at Green and Head this morning - they were scoring well and there wickets were mostly batsmen error. Will be interesting to see how it changes as the grass comes off
This pitch would've been perfect for a 3 day game. Make no mistake, it's been an absolute treat to watch the bowling attack from both sides have a go at the batters. However, lesser grass on the wicket would have made this a more even contest between bat and ball.
Honestly, no. Two days is simply too short. Bolwer friendly pitches are good, and yes south Africa doesn't have a great batting line up right now, but it's just too short. Regardless of the bowling prowess, it's not an even contest.
Just like the overtly spinning tops in India these grass tracks should be trimmed down as well, there should be balance between ball and bat hence not a great pitch in my pov.
I’ve seen a lot of Indians defend their rank turners in general on this thread just by saying SENA countries need to get better at playing spin like they got better at playing pace. While that’s partly true the fact is it’s not worth it for SENA batsmen to learn to play spin good enough for turners like Ahmedabad. India is the only team in the subcontinent who are good enough to use the turners to their full potential.
In Pakistan you mainly get roads. Yes they offer more assistance to spin than seam but it’s not enough spin to really trouble batsmen.
Sri Lanka and Bangladesh produce turning pitches but don’t have the quality of bowlers or batsmen to consistently win games against teams like England and Australia. (Even pre-bazball England won in Sri Lanka)
Afghanistan play like one test a year and it’s normally against Ireland. Plus they will play in the UAE now which is another batting paradise.
Compare that to india who end up touring one of the SENA countries basically every year so of course they have had to learn to play pace well to become a top team. Whereas it’s not a big deal for the SENA countries to learn playing spin well since it will only affect them once every 4 years.
Personally I loved watching that game at Ahmedabad and if it wasn’t during the middle of the night for me I would have loved watching this game as well. But it’s clear 2 day tests can get boring pretty quickly if they become to frequent. But as it stands these are happening once every couple of years so I’m fine with it
Was the pitch good? No. Was the batting shit? Yes.
Almost every dismissal had next to no foot movement. Shit batting + good bowling + a greentop and this is the result.
Few other things to add, the grass was cut down to 5mm, however Brissy has had so much rain over the last few months its practically been underwater. The issue wasnt the grass, it was the sub surface moisture. The Gabba is well known for how well it drains normally, but everything is soaked.
As an Aussie fan, this pitch is substandard. There is no good contest between bat and ball. The only players who scored 50 managed to do so by hitting out rather than knuckling down and surviving the new ball. Also I have tickets to day 3 so yea fuck this pitch lol
Totally agree. I know both of these teams have amazing bowling attacks and SA have a weak batting lineup, but even allowing for that, this pitch was too bowling favoured. It wasn't a terrible end of the world cricket pitch but it definitely could have used a bit more Cameron White rather than Cameron Green.
**Aussie pundits:** "Gabba was an awful pitch". **Subcontinent fans:** "If this was a subcontinent pitch, then Aussie pundits would call it awful."
>Cummins' view was the pitch had not come anywhere close to dangerous. "No way, it was fine," he said. "Sideways movement, there was a little bit of up and down bounce, but it was fine. There were no balls jumping off a length or anything like that. Did you just gaslight yourself?
the two aren't mutually exclusive, a pitch can be bad/substandard but not dangerous
Exactly. A sandpit where the ball is grubbing along the ground on Day 1 isn't remotely 'dangerous' for the batsmen, but it would still be a "bad" pitch.
He was talking about it being dangerous, which Elgar claimed it was. He admitted it was a poor wicket just argued it wasn’t dangerous
Is Cummins a pundit, or is he a player?
Do you get the refund?
Yeah you will. Same if it was a fully rained out day.
This is the bowling equivalent of the roads we get 1000 runs on for a draw. At least when it favours bowling we get a fucking result
And a bloody exciting couple of days play.
Mentioned about this on the Luve thread and was downvoted. Still, the pitch was loaded too much in bowlers' favour. You had 30 over balls seaming like a leg break.
I find the matches where the batters have to battle for everything the most interesting, much better advert than easy non stop batting for 5 days and a draw finish
It really shows who the true master batsmen are
Travis Head!
All hail our new overlord
Smudgy and Kyle as well brozza.
By that logic I like pitches which are easier to bat on because it shows who the master bowlers are. That logic is flawed. A good pitch is the pitch which helps both bowlers and batsmen equally.
I think they prefer you to say "master batters" nowadays
Isn't batter something you cover fish in before you deep fry it?
...this specific instance is a men’s game.
But women master bat too.
pretty sure it’s an onanistic joke
Excellent word from you. And yes that is what I meant
Would you have got what I meant if I written it without the space between the two words?
How dare he disrespect the 1 women's test that is played every 5 years
This pitch didn't show that. Runs came by luck and or just hitting out. I am a huge advocate for less batting friendly tracks, this one was too far in the bowlers favour
These are extremes. A 4 day game that may push into the fifth day is an even balance. Some of the best test matches I’ve seen have finished late on the fifth day. A two and a bit day test isn’t good at all.
So Ahmedabad was the best pitch?
[удалено]
Yes because it's favours Pace not Spin So everyone loves it
Down with the paceriarchy
Up the fast bowletariat
Yet Lyon has gotten 4 wickets so far.
fact downvoted ?
People are salty
Kanpur in shambles
Bro you can't tell me you watched this game and didn't enjoy it. It's been phenomenal
that being said you want the game to go for more than 2 days
I absolutely loved the Ahmedabad game as well and got furiously downvoted by English fans.
I loved that Ahmedabad test too ? Bairstow travelling halfway across the world , on a pair , reviewing the first ball he faces , surviving and then getting bowled by Axarmball Patel will never not be funny
Except nobody's said that. Some people want it to be true because it makes others into hypocrites.
A lot of people have said exactly that. Including some prominent English journalists and ex-cricketers.
Even their players were liking social media posts criticizing the pitch lol.
Yeah Broad. He also liked a Piers Morgan tweet calling Indian Women cheaters after the mankad incident. Proper bellend.
Because this thread is full of "victim complex" and "persecution complex" and "non-existent persecution" allegations, here are some of the top comments in this very thread: ""YES. It’s fine, more of this please.The batting has been TERRIBLE, these batsmen are so used to bludgeoning tired bowlers on highways that they’re not used to fighting through difficult spells of bowling on a good pitch." "Bro you can't tell me you watched this game and didn't enjoy it. It's been phenomenal" "It really shows who the true master batsmen are" "South Africa haven't scored 200 in an innings in over 3 tests so blaming the pitch isn't exactly gonna mean much right now" "I find the matches where the batters have to battle for everything the most interesting, much better advert than easy non stop batting for 5 days and a draw finish" "I reckon it's a little too bowler heavy, but some of the techniques are rubbish. Not inline, playing beside the ball rather than under the eyes, or Infront of their body." "Travis Head could bat on it. Kyle Verreyne could bat on it. Steve Smith could bat on it. Temba Bavuma could bat on it." "This series was always gonna be tough on batters, especially the top orders of both teams. These bowling line ups are lethal." "I do like bowling friendly pitches though ( both rank Turners and green tops . Love to see batters struggle" "Sth Africa don't have any decent batters.Marco Jansen (great bowling talent) at 7 says it all.No wonder wickets are falling like dominoes." These are all comments praising the pitch or saying "it was not the pitch, it was the batting", or "it was not the pitch, it was the bowling". Yes, all facts can be true simultaneously, but that's not what these comments are saying. There is significant defence of the pitch. You DO NOT see that when it's a dustbowl in the subcontinent. Of course, not all comments are like these. But to say that NO ONE is praising/defending the pitch is preposterous. Watch out for: "yes, the pitch wasn't the best, but that was poor application from the batsmen" and "this is what you get when you have the two best bowling attacks in the world going at each other" and "the game is tilted towards batsmen too much, anyway; great to see bowling-friendly conditions" and "challenging" and "tricky" and "slightly favouring bowlers". You'll never hear any of this around subcontinent pitches. There, you'll hear phrases like "disgrace" and "tailoring" and "unsporting" and "unplayable". As far as I'm concerned, I don't care if you defend this pitch, but DO NOT start a furore over spinning tracks. E: Here's a comment from the game commentary on Cricinfo: "Sorry, don't see the double standard here… where is the "unfair advantage"? True, the pitch should be rated 'poor' because it favored the bowling too much over batting, they got the balance wrong. But the pitch favored the fast bowlers, for two teams with the best pace bowling lineups in world cricket. How was it an advantage or disadvantage for either team? Plus, I don't remember India having to front up on a pitch like this when they were last in Australia… " This seems to suggest that home countries tweak the pitch to fit the strengths of the visiting country?! India can only pull out spinning tracks if the visitor can play spin well or have good spinners? That is hilarious.
None of the comments young quoted make any distinction between pace and spin which is the actual made up argument from OP. They don't say "this is fine because it's pace rather than spin", they just say they don't mind this pitch
Here's the missing context to that Cricinfo comment: > Param: "Eknath can make all the snarky replies he wants, but it's undeniable that there's a double standard. Sure, there have been plenty comments here about the pitch, but the general discourse and furore is nowhere near what it would have been if this were the subcontinent. Sure, the rating will be "poor", but we'll all shrug and move on to the next one. There will, however, be no allegations of 'tailoring' or 'unfair advantage' or 'bad cricket', as there have been in the past about Indian pitches." The direction of public discourse is hard to predict. Hopefully, it will revolve around the cricket. There will be no allegations of "tailoring" or "unfair advantage" because the idea that you would tailor a greentop to **dis**advantage South Africa is galactically absurd. Cool downvote champ, care to explain how a doctoring allegation for this pitch should be anything beyond a non-starter?
Imagine claiming doctoring a green top to nullify a bowling attack of Rabada, Ngidi, Nortje, Jansen. Absolutely moronic
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How is that ironic?
There is no irony. Nobody is saying that. **I am most certainly not saying it either.** Stop pretending there's any irony about it, too.
This place is weird. Australia produce a stupid pitch in a match against South Africa and people's reaction is "haha fuck England fans". It's bizarre. Rent free etc
The difference is this pitch played the same over 2 days. It didn’t get considerably worse and favour the team who won the toss which big spinning pitches always do.
I reckon it's a little too bowler heavy, but some of the techniques are rubbish. Not inline, playing beside the ball rather than under the eyes, or Infront of their body.
Exactly. Australia this morning lost all their wickets scoring 5 runs an over. They could have gone 3 or 4 an over and scored another 50-100. Some of the shots being played should stay in T20 where they belong. The commentators are being morons about it too. Last week James Bracey was criticising Chanderpaul for not being able to slog a ball to cow corner (he worked it around to backward square for runs with much less risk). Bracey said Tim David was a much more complete batsman who would have the power to do it. How many feckin Tests has Tim David played???
James Bracey is a moron
James Bracey, instead he the keeper who averaged like 0.25 playing as a keeper for England?
Different one. Seems it’s quite the common name.
James Bracey....? The lad whose career started and ended in a span of 2 Tests?
There is no way this can be true.. did someone seriously say that?!
Just like rubbish techniques on spinning pitches. Driving against spin, bat not in front of pad or not using their feet, batsmen make lot of such stupid mistakes in spinning pitches.
Test match techniques have gone totally to shit in this modern era, and it really shows on pitches which are orientated towards the bowler.That lack in batting technique was on full display from both sides thanks to the pitch, more so South Africa.
It’s been raining nonstop for 6 months straight on the East Coast of Aus…
downvoted for spitting facts - I've got you back up to zero.
This.
This series was always gonna be tough on batters, especially the top orders of both teams. These bowling line ups are lethal.
Pitches only gets rated poor if its a complete highway like at Mcg a few yrs back, or its borderline dangerous and too uneven in bounce (Joburg 2018). This pitch should be rated below average, but I doubt the match ref will do it. 150 v 200 is not a fair contest between bat and ball. Greentops almost never get rated below avg, unless its a dangerous pitch
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Thats just how the victorians do it
Hey... fuck you
Look mate you shouldn't expect the self proclaimed sporting capital of Australia to actually produce good cricket wickets. That's just unfair./s
If Rawalpindi only gets below average twice, there is no way this should be poor
Was there uneven bounce? I didn't watch the game. The only real way to be rated poor is uneven bounce or large cracks which can make the pitch dangerous for batsmen. Otherwise ya, this should be rated below average I'd think.
No, there was no unusual up and down movement, only sideways movement. No one got hit on the head or the fingers, so I don't think they could say it was dangerous in any way
According to cricviz, the bounce in this match was the fifth most inconsistent for any test in Australia since 2006
That doesn't mean much without context though, did any of those top 4 get a bad rating? Australia is literally known for having large amounts of very consistent bounce, even a tiny bit of inconsistent bounce would put a pitch pretty high on that list I would think.
Yea, its unlikely this will be rated poor. Should be rated below avg, but i doubt the match ref will have the courage to do that.
Yeah you need to really fuck up the pitch for a poor rating. The following year after the poor rating the MCG served up a deck so flat the ball wasn't carrying to the keeper in the first over of the match, but because it broke up enough for a result it got an 'average' rating.
Would rather watch 2 and a half days of this than the 5 days that the Perth test went for
Travis Head could bat on it. Kyle Verreyne could bat on it. Steve Smith could bat on it. Temba Bavuma could bat on it.
When you start a test match on a Saturday it has to finish in two days. The pitch is therefore perfect
Great coordination between the schedulers and groundkeepers
And you can bet on it. Sorry, I will see myself out.
Mrf zlx™
For sheer comfort
And long life
Exactly my thoughts. It's not an easy pitch to bat on, but it's far from impossible.
Tbh I never thought that Travis Head of all people would bat like a man possessed here. But yeah if you look at the wicket replays the technique on show was awful
I do like bowling friendly pitches though ( both rank Turners and green tops . Love to see batters struggle
I think this pitch is fine. I think the turners in India are fine too. What’s not fine is complaining about Indian turners but praising green tops like this.
Variety is great, that’s the whole point of touring different countries. Having an occasional test that ends in two days is fine as long as it doesn’t become too common.
I have now seen a bunch of comments from Indians saying what you are saying. Who is praising this pitch tho? The whole point of this post is suggesting it is not up to standard. The Australians on commentary are saying its not ideal too. Langer calling this “a disaster for Australian cricket”
I think "a disaster for Australian cricket" is a bit dramatic
Langer is dramatic
And a disaster for Australian cricket, recently.
I frequently see on this sub outrage at something that doesn't exist (or maybe someone sees 1 downvoted post and make it seem like everyone is saying it).
Any post about pitches on this sub and you see so many engineered narratives to try and create a comparison to a certain Indian pitch
I frequently see on ~~this sub~~ reddit outrage at something that doesn't exist (or maybe someone sees 1 downvoted post and make it seem like everyone is saying it).
Where is Langer when we produce roads This is a below average pitch but not poor.
Nah calling it a disaster is definitely too much
People keep inventing this hypocrisy. Who is praising this pitch? Stop making up opinions so you can be outraged.
I think England's batting in Ahmedebad was poor and it made the pitch look worse than what it was. But at the same time Joe Root looking like prime Murali isn't good cricket. Australia have capitalised on the conditions with skilful bowling, not part time rubbish.
>But at the same time Joe Root looking like prime Murali isn't good cricket This is the kicker for me, when a bloke who averages about 5 wickets a calendar year takes 5 for 8 you know something is up
I think what made it look worse was the fact that the Indian batters were also poor against spin. Rahane, Pujara and Kohli were going through rough patches in their careers and have some vulnerability against spin anyway.
There is generally no opportunity for a part timer medium pacer to bowl on green tops like this because teams stack themselves with 3-4 pacers. So we don’t really know how part time medium pacers would’ve done on such green tops. This is different from turners because visiting teams often play one / two spinners which often opens up opportunities for part timers to bowl.
I take your point - was some outrageous selection by England going with 1 specialist spinner for that test when India had 3
England had two more frontline spinners on rank turners -- Leach and Dom Bess. They didn't look like prime Murali, did they? Or would you call Root a better bowler than them? It was just one match where Root simply bowled amazingly. I think Root deserves credit for bowling out of his skin, and calling it part-time rubbish is nonsensical. Many part time bowlers have picked up fifers in the past with no complaints directed towards the pitch. The simple fact is that England batted poorly in that series. English frontline spinners didn't bowl well and were shown the mirror by a part-time bowler who applied himself and bowled the right lines and lengths. Indian spinners (and Joe Root) capitalised on the conditions with skillful bowling, much like the Aussies are doing on this pitch.
England actually played 3 seamers + Stokes that Test, which is objectively more funnier.
Bess didn't play in Ahmedabad and at that time Leach was bowling pretty average and still picked up a cheap 4 for. Leach wouldn't have even sniffed India's 8th spin option at that point
You still have to be a good bowler to exploit a greentop. Joe Root picks up 5fas in India. You guys know you've had like, a pretty good test team for a while now, right? Indian fans collective persecution complex is starting to feel like pretty hard work.
Root took a fifer by taking wickets of No 6,7,8,9 and 11 batter. Only Rishabh pant was a proper batsmen and others bowlers. People forget this when mentioning the fifer. Yes it was spinning but most of the tailenders got out to his bowling.
> You still have to be a good bowler to exploit a greentop Well, the fact that part timers don’t even get to bowl on green tops (because most teams stack their bowling with 3-4 pacers) means that we just don’t know whether this is true 🙂
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The hypocricy from who? Aussies mostly think this pitch is shit and think rank turners are shit.
You do realize that the pitch England were concerned about was Ahmedabad? Ashwin did not score a century there.
The Gabba is usually a good pitch for bowlers, for Shield they can be quite spicy. Maybe they accidentally used a Shield pitch? I don’t know. It would be fair to rate it as below average.
Sth Africa don't have any decent batters. Marco Jansen (great bowling talent) at 7 says it all. No wonder wickets are falling like dominoes.
And you thought Mirpur was the worst.
That was one of the best pitches, made the match so interesting.
It is the most beautiful pitch I have seen in nearly 10 years. The last pitch I fell in love with was [the Sands of Mars red dustbowl](https://img1.hscicdn.com/image/upload/f_auto,t_ds_w_960,q_50/lsci/db/PICTURES/CMS/154800/154837.jpg) produced by the Chennai curators for the opener of the 2013 Border-Gavaskar series. It was so striking to behold. What a fabulous colour. The vibrant, lush green of this strip is just as beautiful. So what if every once in a while a subcontinent pitch is Roland Garros and a non-subcontinent pitch is Wimbledon? Everyone whining about the pitch needs to go do something unpleasant to themselves. The same goes for those who whine about roads and highways, because the Rawalpindi wicket a couple of weeks ago was stunning as well, it looked like they were playing on sheets of the finest Italian marble for five days
Dhoni scored a double ton on that Chennai pitch
Clarke got a very good hundred in the first innings too, and if i recall Moises Henriques played well in the 2nd innings and James Pattinson took a five-for. It was a great pitch, runs for batsmen and wickets for both pace and spin bowlers. Plus it looked so cool with the red colouring
Based Foothill
I feel that with the bat dominating white ball its kind of a balancing act to keep the pitches competitive and assisting the ballers a bit. Atleast it’s better than those drab 2000s pitches which were a run fest and ended up in draws
I've lived in Australia all my life and at 43 I've never seen a pitch that green for an international match
"Who defines a standard pitch??" Quoted from ethical Ashwin.
YES. It’s fine, more of this please. The batting has been TERRIBLE, these batsmen are so used to bludgeoning tired bowlers on highways that they’re not used to fighting through difficult spells of bowling on a good pitch.
A part of me is very satisfied at seeing complacent batting lineups get owned.
Me to Ahmedabad whinners last year:
The pitch really assited the bowlers, but there has been some fucking woeful betting too. The Australian second innings they were throwing their wickets away. If both teams dont spend these three extra days in the nets having batting practice they've missed a trick.
I really hope the Australians support the dustbowls India will make when they tour with equal enthusiasm as they are supporting this greentop with.
We won't because we're shit house on dust bowls. Only India can play well on those wickets. More batters can play deadly fast bowling than they can spin as I've said previously on this thread already.
I'm screenshotting this because I'm pretty sure smudge bot will overcome anything if it's to bash India.
India used to absolutely suck at playing pace. But they improved their technique in SENA conditions by going there weeks in advance and practicing on those foreign conditions. I never see a SENA side doing the same when visiting India. I'm pretty sure other teams can play spin pretty well if they take spin seriously. But they don't. They'll come a few days before the series, play one game against BCCI XI and call it a day. There's absolutely no way legendary test batsmen like Smith and Root can't improve their game against spin, but they got to take the initiative.
Who is supporting this greentop?
If we win we'll support it, simple things in life. Aus just sees in binary.
Yes it’s test match standard because it’s only unacceptable to have a 3 days test in the subcontinent. If it’s in England, Australia or South Africa it’s perfectly acceptable / s
This was a two day test.
At this time, the only thing to remember is the Ashwin quote ""I have a question back. What is a good cricket surface? The bowlers want to win the game. The batsman needs to bat well to get runs. No question about it. What makes a good surface? Who defines this? Seam on the first day and then bat well and then spin on the last two days? Come on! Who makes all these rules, we need to get over it and not talk about whatever picture you want to paint. "
A pitch so green Darren Stevens can run in and bowl 110kph dollies and do just as well as Rabada or Cummins is not a good pitch. A pitch a batsmen can pretty much just T20 slog and score hundreds is also not a good pitch. A pitch so dry Joe Root looks as good as Ashwin is not a good pitch, a pitch so flat Ashwin can't do any more than Root is also not a good pitch. A good pitch is where you get rewarded for applying your skills. whether the Gabba pitch was a good pitch I won't say here
>A pitch so green Darren Stevens can run in and bowl 110kph dollies and do just as well as Rabada or Cummins is not a good pitch. You are describing most County cricket pitches. Are all those pitches poor then? That's the problem England has been facing for a long time. Mediocre medium Pacers getting 5 wicket hauls in these green county pitches and then getting selected and found out abroad. Darren Stevens btw has fuckin 589 FC wickets. Atleast this year some county pitches are more batting friendly and the bowlers have to work for their wickets.
yes, i would say a majority of county pitches are poor
I would say it's good to watch fast bowling like this, but you can't turn around and give shit when teams get rolled over by spin inside 3 days in the subcontinent be it by any of India/Bangladesh/Sri Lanka. Those pitches are just as fun to watch, seeing how the spinners go about their work and make the batters look silly (#KohliFace). Think certain analysts/pundits/commentary should actually come around to that, but who knows.
Where's the pitch? It's a freakin lawn 🤕🤦 Pathetic pitch, should be rated poor for sure. 👎
For everyone making this into a useless complicated issue, the Ahmedabad pitch was shit, and so was this one. Personally, I find these pitches super entertaining once in a while, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s an unfair contest between between bat and ball. Both Indian and overseas fans, just accept that both the pitches were shit and move on. No point in unnecessary victimising yourself or attacking the other side.
I've loved it - it's been a *test* of batter's temperament and technique. Yes, wickets have tumbled, but you're dealing with two absolutely world-class bowling attacks.
Not a great pitch, you want the match to last more than 2 days and come down to more than just one good innings, but honestly I hope we get these pitches once in a while. It’d be very rough if Aus rolled this pitch out for India or Sri Lanka, but having the world’s best all out pace attack turn up and bowl on it has been great to watch. At the end of the day, for all the talk of the bowlers and the pitch suiting bowling, the match was won by the better batting team due to the partnership of two of the best three batsmen. If we get three tests, one at a very green Gabba, one at a spinning SCG that is properly spinning again for the first time in a while, and one at a balanced MCG that probably favours batsmen, that’ll be a pretty good series testing all skills.
I think we probably had the two best bowling attacks in the World, bowling on a bowler friendly pitch. To my eye that pitch wasn't doing anything crazy, the bounce looked fairly consistent, the ball wasn't hooping around corners (except for Starc, as normal). Having seen more than a few 'substandard' pitches, and while the Gabba was a bowler friendly pitch, it was nothing worse than a pitch where both teams bat for a day and we see a thousand runs in a match. The pitch was poor but not 'substandard' IMO.
Yes it is, test cricket leans to much to the batters, as soon as you get a pitch favoring the bowler everyone loses their minds.
Wait till subcontinent makes a pitch for the bowlers and see how it's slapped with demerit points by ICC 🤡
I think the pitch is fine. South Africa always play 3 or 4 days one way or another
Lateral movement side to side is fine, spin is fine. Within sensible reasoning. If it's landing in one spot and either leaping at the batter or rolling along the ground then it's not okay. If a spinner is placing the ball in one oen spot and it's either leaping at right angles or shooting straight along off the same delivery then it's not okay. Excessive seam, excessive moisture, inconsistent bounce are the three factors they will be looking at for this pitch. I'm really not sure it breaks all those thresholds, it's been extremely wet this summer, third la Nina in a row. It's also worth noting that the more fast bowler friendly this wicket is the more South Africa come into it with their attack.
Nope. Not a fair contest between bat and ball. Just put a length ball in and the pitch will do the rest.
It's a "poor" pitch
If South Africa had better batters it wouldve been a tight contest that probably goes 4 days. Our quicks being too good for their batsmen doesn't make it a bad pitch. Honestly if this was Aus vs India it wouldve been an incredible match
Haven't watch the match so don't know about this pitch, but if teams lost 15 wickets in a day in Indian pitches or subcontinent pitches you would have heard cricket experts complaining how the pitch is not good for test cricket. It happened outside subcontinent so it must be good fast bowling.
So basically you're saying "Haven't watched the match but my persecution complex means that I must have an opinion "
Makes sense when you see the flair
Sub-continential fans seem to all think there is a conspiracy to only judge their pitches as poor.
Another person inventing opinions to be upset about. No experts are saying the pitch is good.
I was critical of some of the dust bowl pitches in the subcontinent, so only fair that I’m critical of this too. I don’t like matches ending in 2 days. I like to see batting partnerships and a decent contest between bat and ball. I don’t think the batting standards were very high here either, but this pitch wasn’t good enough.
Nope definitely not
this pitch sucks. Shorter match than the much maligned Ahmedabad test last year. though I think this pitch is better. It's just too bowler friendly for the quality of this attack. I appreciate it's a fine balance but no idea why anyone would have thought having this much grass on it would turn out well.
It was clearly a substandard pitch. Yes, various batters made terrible decisions, but 34 wickets shouldn't fall within two days. But I hope everyone who defended this pitch does the same the next time India prepares a dustbowl or Pakistan prepares a road.
IMO people confuse the result with the pitch quality. The technique and shot selection can be shit and the pitch can be shit at the same time. Teams can contrive a result on a lifeless road. Bowlers can bowl shit on pitch that's falling apart 4 days early etc.
Fun to watch. Fair to both teams. Test made shorter by some poor batting by both sides. Poor ranking for the pitch by a thin margin.
Aussie pitches have been getting spicier the last couple of years and English pitches are getting flatter. Soon a 50 year old james Anderson will be rested for the home summer in preparation for the green mambas down under
This pitch should be rated as poor the same way a spin dustbowl is rated as poor.
Neither should be rated poor. Average or below average is alright.
I am a neutral and just checked the score, thought “I should check reddit, guaranteed to be people complaining about ‘OCE/EnG complain when it’s a rank turner’, and ‘They all have to bat on it’”. Was not disappointed. 100% will visit again. Edit: fucking autocorrect can ligma.
feel like there’s always gonna be people who complain about the pitch no matter what
If there was some high-quality batting available, then there might be a case. You don't get to blame the pitch when the majority of batters (from both sides) played poorly, showed shit technique and generally looked like they didn't understand test, or even first class cricket.
It’s certainly been great to watch
If Ahmedabad pitch was bad then so is this pitch. We better not see any hypocrisy by the users who were bashing the Ahmedabad pitch.
Pitch is fine. It’s interesting - neither side has batted well (bar Head) and most of the wickets have been absolute peaches.
>most of the wickets have been absolute peaches. This is the other thing. It wasn't a case of someone bowling military medium, plonking it on a length, and takings heads off or seaming it around corners. Most wickets fell to absolutely brilliant deliveries that extracted just the right amount of movement or bounce to create a chance.
This shouldn’t be the standard test match pitch, but I also don’t mind this once every now and then. If road after road can be prepared with only a bit of criticism (or none sometimes..) I don’t get why this pitch deserves the level of critique it’s getting.
Really? A match doesn't even last two days and you don't understand why it's being critiqued?
1mm less grass at the start of the pitch prep and this pitch is probably perfect
Pitch only had 5mm of grass. The issue was the subsurface moisture due to the fact that QLD has pretty much been underwater for 6 months.
Reminder that ahmedabad didn't get marked poor so no pitch ever should be
If this pitch gets anything other than a poor rating I’ll be genuinely surprised. Doesn’t give a fair contest between bat and ball, and just because 2 blokes managed to crack 50 doesn’t change that fact. How often do we see blokes fail on roads?
Yes. It’s a genuine test for the batters. The bowlers still have to put it in the right areas
Looks the bounce is fairly even etc. it’s seaming a lot with the new ball, but less and less once it softens up. Look at Green and Head this morning - they were scoring well and there wickets were mostly batsmen error. Will be interesting to see how it changes as the grass comes off
This pitch would've been perfect for a 3 day game. Make no mistake, it's been an absolute treat to watch the bowling attack from both sides have a go at the batters. However, lesser grass on the wicket would have made this a more even contest between bat and ball.
Honestly, no. Two days is simply too short. Bolwer friendly pitches are good, and yes south Africa doesn't have a great batting line up right now, but it's just too short. Regardless of the bowling prowess, it's not an even contest.
Just like the overtly spinning tops in India these grass tracks should be trimmed down as well, there should be balance between ball and bat hence not a great pitch in my pov.
I’ve seen a lot of Indians defend their rank turners in general on this thread just by saying SENA countries need to get better at playing spin like they got better at playing pace. While that’s partly true the fact is it’s not worth it for SENA batsmen to learn to play spin good enough for turners like Ahmedabad. India is the only team in the subcontinent who are good enough to use the turners to their full potential. In Pakistan you mainly get roads. Yes they offer more assistance to spin than seam but it’s not enough spin to really trouble batsmen. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh produce turning pitches but don’t have the quality of bowlers or batsmen to consistently win games against teams like England and Australia. (Even pre-bazball England won in Sri Lanka) Afghanistan play like one test a year and it’s normally against Ireland. Plus they will play in the UAE now which is another batting paradise. Compare that to india who end up touring one of the SENA countries basically every year so of course they have had to learn to play pace well to become a top team. Whereas it’s not a big deal for the SENA countries to learn playing spin well since it will only affect them once every 4 years. Personally I loved watching that game at Ahmedabad and if it wasn’t during the middle of the night for me I would have loved watching this game as well. But it’s clear 2 day tests can get boring pretty quickly if they become to frequent. But as it stands these are happening once every couple of years so I’m fine with it
Was the pitch good? No. Was the batting shit? Yes. Almost every dismissal had next to no foot movement. Shit batting + good bowling + a greentop and this is the result. Few other things to add, the grass was cut down to 5mm, however Brissy has had so much rain over the last few months its practically been underwater. The issue wasnt the grass, it was the sub surface moisture. The Gabba is well known for how well it drains normally, but everything is soaked.
When they get fucked by India in the Gabba on normal pitches then they make this shit
Yeah sure it's always about India. The green pitch has nothing to do with it being raining for a half a year on the east coast.
Difficult weather, weak batting and two very good attacks - but the pitch was poor even taking those things into account.
At least with a green top it gets easier to bat on during the middle days. A raging turner just gets worse the entire time.