Pressure is on MCG curator Matt Page to provide a pitch that is “a little bit better” than last year for the Boxing Day Test according to star batter Steve Smith after a three-day Ashes clash in Melbourne dominated by bowlers.
As Cricket Australia accepted the wicket for the opening Test against South Africa in Brisbane last week, which finished inside two day, was “clearly” too weighted in favour of the bowlers, Smith said he hoped this year’s MCG wicket was better balanced.
England was rolled for just 68 in its second innings last summer, as hometown hero Scott Boland ripped through the top order and Australia romped to victory by an innings and 14 runs.
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Smith said before last week’s Brisbane debacle that the MCG pitch was the most difficult he’d batted on in Australia. While conscious of the difficulties associated with drop-in pitches, he was hopeful Page would avoid the day one softness batters experienced at the Gabba.
“It obviously did a bit, ended in three days, just a little bit longer than our last match. So, as a batter, I’d like it to do a little bit less,” Smith, who made just 16 at the MCG against England last summer, said on arrival in Melbourne on Wednesday.
“I think it’s a fine balance I guess just trying to get that even contest between bat and ball and I think you look back to the last Test … probably wasn’t an even contest, was probably the most difficult weekend I’ve played on here in Australia. Melbourne was probably a close second last year, so hopefully it’s a little bit better than it was last year.
“I think it’s just difficult with those drop-ins potentially to get that balance.
“I think a few years ago you go the other way, it was too batter a friendly. Now I think it’s too bowler friendly, but there’s somewhere in between hopefully that they can settle on.”
Page will be given “guidance” from Cricket Australia on producing a balanced wicket but not instructions according to head of cricket operations Peter Roach, who accepted the below average rating for the Gabba pitch by the ICC was “fair”.
Roach was adamant the surface in Brisbane was not dangerous, as suggested by South African captain Dean Elgar.
But he revealed CA’s preference was for Tests to be in the balance, and potentially finished, late on the fourth day and wickets should be produced to push matches that way.
“Late on the fourth days, with an even balance between bat and ball,” Roach said.
“We give guidance (to curators) and discuss how we think Test cricket needs to look, but one of the beauties of Test cricket in Australia, why it thrives, is because we’ve got these such unique characteristics from one side of the country to the other and we want to see them come out.”
Roach said he would be speaking to Page but only as a matter of procedure, confident the MCG curator, in his fifth year in Melbourne, would produce the best pitch possible and not err too far in favour of batters in the wake of what happened in Brisbane.
“We don’t expect what happened at the Gabba to influence what’s going to happen at the MCG,” he said.
“We expect all curators to again find that balance between bat and ball, given the unique characteristics of the venue that they’re at.
“The MCG is a different venue to the Gabba they’ve got now. The current curator has now been here five years and has tinkered a little bit every year to try and make that as perfect as he can and we hope that comes out on Boxing Day.”
