Ben Stokes has launched a scathing attack on the MCG pitch after the Boxing Day Ashes Test ended inside two days. A total of 36 wickets fell in less than six sessions, as England eventually secured a tense four-wicket win to reduce the margin to 3-1 in the five-Test series.
Stokes, the England captain, was brutally honest despite his team’s victory and said that a pitch like the MCG would raise “hell” if it was produced in another part of the world. “If that was another condition somewhere else and that happened, you probably would get a pasting. I’m pretty sure if that was somewhere else in the world there would be hell on,” Stokes told BBC’s Test Match Special. When asked if he was talking about the pitches in Asia that offer excessive turn, the England skipper said: “Those are your words, not mine.”
Only last month, the Eden Gardens pitch was heavily criticised after the first Test against India and South Africa ended inside three days. Between the lines, Stokes probably called out the hypocrisy.
Coming back to the MCG surface, he commented: “With 36 wickets in less than two days and no total over 200, I think you can read into that a lot”, adding: “It is not the best thing for games that should be played over five days but we played a type of cricket that ended up getting the job done.”
Australia’s stand-in captain Steve Smith, too, expressed his surprise over MCG curator Matthew Page leaving so much grass on the surface.
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