Summer cricket 2022/23
- Thread starter Sully
- Start date
During all the furore over the (justified) criticism of Indian pitches for the first three tests, Sunny Gavaskar tried to divert some of that criticism back to Australia over the state of the recent Gabba pitch.
Sunny, come closer, no, closer than that: we stuffed up! There, happy to admit it. To quote the Daily Mail, "Gabba curator David Sandurski subsequently admitted the surface was not up to scratch with the requirements of Test cricket. With just 144.2 overs bowled across the four innings, the test and was the first on Australian soil to end within two days since the West Indies were routed in Melbourne in 1931. 'The proof is in the pudding,' he told News Corp. 'The scorecards are there. You can’t deny it. It is obviously not good enough for a match of this magnitude. I am obviously disappointed. No one wants to have a two day Test. All the signs in the preparation pointed towards it being a reasonable wicket.'
My emphasis.
In my lifetime there's been no doctoring of Australian pitches for test matches. Brisbane and Perth are always hard decks suited to quality fast bowling while Sydney has, mostly, favoured spinners. Adelaide's been a batsmen's paradise forever. Melbourne? Always been a licorice allsorts but rewarding quality batting and/or bowling.
This blatant pitch doctoring favouring offspinners, especially to left-hand batsmen, is disgraceful. If the ICC had any gumption they'd insist the match referees take control of pitch preparations a fortnight before tests commence. If Brisbane cops such a condition to keep tests, so be it.
Sunny, come closer, no, closer than that: we stuffed up! There, happy to admit it. To quote the Daily Mail, "Gabba curator David Sandurski subsequently admitted the surface was not up to scratch with the requirements of Test cricket. With just 144.2 overs bowled across the four innings, the test and was the first on Australian soil to end within two days since the West Indies were routed in Melbourne in 1931. 'The proof is in the pudding,' he told News Corp. 'The scorecards are there. You can’t deny it. It is obviously not good enough for a match of this magnitude. I am obviously disappointed. No one wants to have a two day Test. All the signs in the preparation pointed towards it being a reasonable wicket.'
My emphasis.
In my lifetime there's been no doctoring of Australian pitches for test matches. Brisbane and Perth are always hard decks suited to quality fast bowling while Sydney has, mostly, favoured spinners. Adelaide's been a batsmen's paradise forever. Melbourne? Always been a licorice allsorts but rewarding quality batting and/or bowling.
This blatant pitch doctoring favouring offspinners, especially to left-hand batsmen, is disgraceful. If the ICC had any gumption they'd insist the match referees take control of pitch preparations a fortnight before tests commence. If Brisbane cops such a condition to keep tests, so be it.
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The Ghost of Raelene
Andrew Slack (58)
curators look like they got told the Indian batters are struggling as well so don’t fuck this up
What a day! Fantastic concentration by Uzzie to bat all day. Well deserved century for our best player over the last year or so.
Sword of Justice
Vay Wilson (31)
I think 400 is bare minimum to stay in the game on this deck. You can tell how flat it is by how few appeals or reviews over the entire day's play.
3 spinners may backfire on us but for now I'm very satiated by that days play and hoping for some big scores from Khawaja and Green.
3 spinners may backfire on us but for now I'm very satiated by that days play and hoping for some big scores from Khawaja and Green.
The Ghost of Raelene
Andrew Slack (58)
Getting India out in the first innings may be the hard part with 3 Spinners on this wicket but they do have to bat last on it....
The_Brown_Hornet
John Eales (66)
Great hundred for Uz and big Cam (he's 2m tall you know) looked magnificent towards the end yesterday. Need a big first innings score here.
Dctarget
John Eales (66)
Looking promising for that 400. Wonder what we should declare at? Or just tell them to start absolutely punting it.
The Ghost of Raelene
Andrew Slack (58)
Maybe but you’d want near 500 I reckon. Want to make sure you can’t lose the match.
The_Brown_Hornet
John Eales (66)
Fuck yes, boys - a wicketless session. Go on and get your maiden ton young fella.
What we'd do to have Boland in our attack for this test. What odds on one of the spinners copping a hammy/ball to the head/ACL or whatever?
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The Ghost of Raelene
Andrew Slack (58)
Green getting his first 100 has made me so happy. Seeing these things give you comfort about the future