{"id":7708,"date":"2025-12-29T08:55:36","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T08:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=7708"},"modified":"2025-12-29T08:55:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T08:55:36","slug":"ashes-2025-26-melbourne-pitch-rated-unsatisfactory-after-two-day-boxing-day-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=7708","title":{"rendered":"Ashes 2025-26: Melbourne pitch rated ‘unsatisfactory’ after two-day Boxing Day Test"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

The MCG’s head curator Matt Page left 10mm of grass on the pitch to counter hot conditions forecast later in the match but this has been given as a reason for the lively conditions.<\/p>\n

Page said he was in a “state of shock” during the match, which England won by four wickets.<\/a> Travis Head’s 46 in Australia’s second innings was the highest score.<\/p>\n

The Boxing Day Test was the second two-day affair of this Ashes series but the surface for the other, the first Test in Perth, was rated as “very good” suggesting batter error was more to blame there.<\/p>\n

“Unsatisfactory” is the ICC’s second lowest ranking for a pitch.<\/p>\n

Though this is the first time an Australian strip has been rated substandard under the current system, there has been trouble with the MCG pitch before.<\/p>\n

In the drawn match of 2017, the surface did not offer enough assistance for the bowlers, resulting in a dull contest in which only 24 wickets fell. That was rated as “poor”.<\/p>\n

A year later, the pitch used for a win for India was rated as “average”.<\/p>\n

Speaking before the ICC’s announcement, Australia coach Andrew McDonald defended Page, suggesting this year’s pitch should be viewed in the context of trying to improve from 2017.<\/p>\n

“He does an outstanding job,” said McDonald.<\/p>\n

“The perspective that I always use is that we [Australia] have bad Test matches as well. We had a bad Test match the first Test match last summer.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes these things can happen, but we support him in what he’s done and are really proud of the evolution of the MCG.<\/p>\n

“Hopefully people can have some context around where he’s been on the journey and support him for the next challenge that he faces.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The MCG’s head curator M… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[251],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7708"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}