Australia vs India: Perth pitch gets the 'lowest passing mark' from the ICC
As part of ICC's new disciplinary system, match referee Ranjan Madugalle rated the pitch after the completion of the match.
The Perth stadium hosted its inaugural Test match between India and Australia recently. After observing the behavior of the pitch, ICC has given a rating on the same. The pitch that made life difficult for batsmen from both sides, has been provided with second to the least possible rating.
At the start of 2018, ICC introduced this system of giving ratings to pitches of cricket grounds. The intention is to improve the quality of the 22-yard wickets across the world. The ratings for Test venues are of five kinds – very good, good, average, below average and poor. At the end of each match, the match referee is bound to give the rating based on how the pitch behaved during the course of the match.
Perth Pitch gets ‘average’
The second Test match between Australia and India was held in the new Perth Stadium from 14th to 18th of December. The match went till the first session of Day 5 which doesn’t indicate how hard was it to bat on the pitch throughout. there was uneven bounce even during the first innings and some batsmen did have to take few blows to their helmet and glove.
As part of ICC’s new disciplinary system, match referee Ranjan Madugalle rated the pitch after the completion of the match. The rating given was ‘average’, which is just one short of the lowest rating ‘poor’. While batting was relatively easy in the first two days, the pitch started wearing down in the second innings. As a result, some balls bounced higher than they should have, while some kept much lower. It is understood that Madugalle could have given the rating after taking the aforementioned factors into consideration.
It is noteworthy that the Adelaide wicket that hosted the first match of the series was rated ‘very good’, the highest possible grade. The wicket seemed to strike the right balance between bat and ball as a handful of runs were scored and all 40 wickets were taken. Batting in the fourth innings wasn’t a nightmare at The Adelaide Oval as Australia got a healthy 291 in pursuit of chasing down 322.
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