Last Updated on 4 months ago by Charbel Coorey
The MCG pitch is in the spotlight after 20 wickets fell on the opening day of the Boxing Day Test. A second two-day Test in this Ashes series is on the cards after Australia’s eight-wicket win in Perth last month.
England won the toss and unsurprisingly opted to bowl on a pitch that had 10 millimetres of grass. Josh Tongue was excellent from the get go, combining with Gus Atkinson to reduce Australia to 72/4 at lunch. Regular wickets continued to fall in the afternoon session as the hosts were bundled out for 152 in just 45.2 overs in front of over 94,000 fans.
The chaos was just beginning. England fell to 16/4 in response and the 19 wickets that fell on day one in Perth looked in danger of being beaten. Harry Brook soon attempted to execute the counterattack to end all counterattacks. However, he was caught plumb LBW for 41 by a massive Scott Boland nip-backer.
England were soon bowled out for 110 in just 29.5 overs. Scott Boland walked out with Travis Head, and one of Victoria’s favourite sons played out the one over, even hitting a boundary off the final ball to huge cheers.
Stuart Broad leads chorus of discontent at MCG pitch
Players and fans have criticised the surface, namely Stuart Broad, Michael Vaughan and Isa Guha.
“I don’t think that Test match quality bowlers need this amount of movement in a surface.
Vaughan and Guha didn’t mince words on Fox Cricket. “This first day wicket is a shocker. It really is,” Vaughan said. “As much as I love seam bowling and watching pace bowlers do well, it’s just a bit too much in favour of the bowlers,” said Guha.
Ricky Ponting also questioned why this surface was prepared differently compared to the pitch for last year’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy classic which went down to the final hour.
“I think there has been very good fast bowling, there’s been some poor technical batting and I think the wicket has offered too much to the bowlers. There is a bit of everything there,” Ponting said on Channel 7.
“We talked this morning we found out there is 10mm of grass that has been left on this particular surface.
“Last year which was a Test match that went late into Day 5, we believe there was only 7mm of grass on that one.
“That will be question that is going to be asked the groundsmen, ‘Why did you leave more grass this year than previous years?’”
Debate: Is the MCG pitch poor or is the batting to blame?
Fans and pundits took to social media to share their views on proceedings. Some believe the surface is offering way too much seam movement, while others point to some poor batting for the main reason as to why 20 wickets fell.
Argument: MCG pitch is poor
“Whichever metric you choose to measure the game in, both teams getting bowled out on day 1 of a test match cannot be good for our game,” wrote Harsha Bhogle on X (formerly Twitter).
“The MCG pitch is a disgrace for Test cricket – excessive grass turned day one into a seaming lottery,” wrote Saurabh, @MR_CricAnalyst.
Argument: Poor batting to blame
Others believe the batting has been sub-standard.
“I’ll die on the hill that says this pitch is not as bad as the batting made it look. Some movement yes. But not an extravagant amount. Some very ordinary batting in those dismissals,” wrote fan Kevin Gramp.
“Yes this track has plenty of spice, but those of us old enough to remember the REAL horror MCG pitches turned out in the early ’80s would argue it’s far from unplayable. Just not convinced batting techniques and concentration are anywhere near as good as they once were,” wrote sports commentator Rohan Connolly.
Australia will begin day two on 4/0 with a lead of 46. Challenging batting conditions is likely to be on the menu again as day one was quite cold. One feels this surface needs hot temperatures and uninterrupted sunshine to ease out.
