Former England captain Michael Vaughan believes MCG curator Matt Page has made a major error in leaving too much grass on the pitch after 20 wickets fell on day one of the fourth Ashes Test.
When the tourists were bowled out for 110 late in the final session after the Aussies had posted 152, it was the first time since 1909 that both teams had been dismissed on the opening day of an Ashes fixture.
“We’re always looking for a fair balance between bat and ball. I thought that was unfair for the batters,” Vaughan said in commentary on Test Match Special.
“The pitch has done plenty. There’s been plenty of movement out there. It’s not been easy for both sides but I don’t like seeing a pitch do so much.
“This first day wicket is a shocker. It really is.”
Fellow England great Stuart Broad agreed with Vaughan’s assessment even if his eyes would have been sparkling if he had been given the chance to bowl on a wicket like this one.
“The pitch is doing too much if I’m brutally honest,” said Broad on SEN radio.
“Test match bowlers don’t need this amount of movement to look threatening.”
Ex-England captain Alastair Cook was blunt in saying “this is not a great Test wicket” on TNT Sports.
“Unless this flattens out on days two, three and four, if we get there, then that was too heavily weighted in the bowlers’ favour.
“The bowlers didn’t have to work that hard for wickets. Could both sides have batted slightly better? Yes, but if you put the ball in the right area, it was going to nip either way. It was a bit of an unfair contest.”
Australia’s star on day one with bat and ball, Michael Neser, expects conditions to improve for the batters.
“We know it can move real fast day one and two, and then once that wicket just hardens up and dries out, it can be quite nice to bat on,” he said.
“I don’t want to go into this (next day) with a preconception of the wicket’s going to be doing a lot because it can flatten and we have just got to stick to our processes.
“A lot of wickets fell but going into it you knew it was going to nip around with the amount of grass there.”
>Cricket News
%20(3).jpeg)
0 Comments