Get rid of drop in wickets

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Just overprepared. One of the players said it was like a Day 3 pitch which it was. No moisture, no grass.

Should break up, spin, reverse swing and maybe stay a little low Days 4 and 5 so I'm sure there will be a result.

 

[Ciderhound]

It's worth pointing out that the best pitch from the first 3 Tests (Adelaide) happened to be the only drop-in. And garbage MCG pitches have been the norm for decades. So there's clearly bigger issues at play.

That said, I don't think drop-in pitches are helping the situation.

The pink ball and the game being played under lights is what got tounges wagging not the pitch. If it had been played with a standard kookaburra during daylight hours the deck would be just another lifeless drop in road.

 

[The Passenger]

Been watching the highlights today after waking up and just a really bland wicket with little character to it.

Really hard slog for the bowlers and despite being high scoring the batsmen never really feel set so not great for them either. A bit like playing on clay or sand. Neither batsmen nor bowler really gets to show off their skill set and IMO cricket is poorer for it.

A session that ends up 1/80 can be absorbing stuff, but a whole day of that in back-to-back-to-back sessions starts getting pretty tedious.

At least this should break up and really bring the bowlers into it as the match goes on.

 

[strewthcobber]

Been watching the highlights today after waking up and just a really bland wicket with little character to it.

Really hard slog for the bowlers and despite being high scoring the batsmen never really feel set so not great for them either. A bit like playing on clay or sand. Neither batsmen nor bowler really gets to show off their skill set and IMO cricket is poorer for it.

A session that ends up 1/80 can be absorbing stuff, but a whole day of that in back-to-back-to-back sessions starts getting pretty tedious.

At least this should break up and really bring the bowlers into it as the match goes on.

There was something in this pitch for the bowlers, a bit of variable bounce, short balls troubled batsmen and there was reverse after 50 overs.

The problem, as always for England, is that right arm nothings at 130km/h isn't going to cause test batsmen issues on this pitch, and they don't have a spinner who can ask any questions.

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[gbatman]

Wicket is fine, it's a test wicket, something in it for both.

 

[to1994]

Let's see how this Test goes but despite being from Melbourne the Boxing Day Test has probably been the most boring Test of the summer for quite a few years.

 

[smasha]

Great pitch,remember the old Melbourne pitches,variable bounce and grubbers on day one.

 

[smasha]

Another perfect day in Melbourne town.

 

[dogs105]

Great pitch,remember the old Melbourne pitches,variable bounce and grubbers on day one.

Yep. This one should last to day 2 or 3

 

[eth-dog]

9 wickets 10 minutes into the final session.

 

[Ciderhound]

9 wickets 10 minutes into the final session.

Due to batsmen stupidity by and large.

 

[Gethelred]

Due to batsmen stupidity by and large.

Nope.

Every Australian wicket can be apportioned to the pitch; the ball either held up or didn't bounce, leading to a shot played above the thing - inside edges into the stumps - or LBW's with the ball staying low.

Don't like the slow decks either, just completely untrue to say that the pitch played no result in wickets falling.

 

[iluvparis]

Nope.

Every Australian wicket can be apportioned to the pitch; the ball either held up or didn't bounce, leading to a shot played above the thing - inside edges into the stumps - or LBW's with the ball staying low.

Don't like the slow decks either, just completely untrue to say that the pitch played no result in wickets falling.

Nope.

Every Australian wicket can be apportioned to the batsmen playing a shot that wasn't necessary. When three guys chop on to balls miles outside off stump you are kidding yourself to say it was the pitch that got them out.

 

[Demosthenes]

Whether a pitch favours the batsmen or the bowlers, it should be fair. That means that good bowling is rewarded, and good batting is rewarded.

Multiple batsmen chopping on is indicative of a two-paced pitch. This makes it difficult to bat on, but in a haphazard way. i.e. the gremlins have a bigger impact on the playability of the ball than how well the bowler executed the delivery.

For me, this is the worst kind of pitch - even worse than a straightforward road, which at least plays true.

 

[Gethelred]

Nope.

Every Australian wicket can be apportioned to the batsmen playing a shot that wasn't necessary. When three guys chop on to balls miles outside off stump you are kidding yourself to say it was the pitch that got them out.

I take it you've not played on a slow low pitch before.

Cutting needs the ball to rise of the deck in a predictable way, as it's a cross bat shot. On a deck like this one, predicting how the ball will bounce outside off is precarious; you'll get a ball that sits there, like M. Marsh's first 4, a beautiful cut, or you'll get a ball that, by anyone's measure, should be a long hop, yet holds up in the deck leading Smith to be miles through his shot before the ball got there, leading to the inside edge onto the stumps.

You're right in that the shots themselves weren't necessary, but the only truly necessary shot's a block. Gotta get the runs somehow, and Australian bats are brought up on the cut.

 

[iluvparis]

I take it you've not played on a slow low pitch before.

Cutting needs the ball to rise of the deck in a predictable way, as it's a cross bat shot. On a deck like this one, predicting how the ball will bounce outside off is precarious; you'll get a ball that sits there, like M. Marsh's first 4, a beautiful cut, or you'll get a ball that, by anyone's measure, should be a long hop, yet holds up in the deck leading Smith to be miles through his shot before the ball got there, leading to the inside edge onto the stumps.

You're right in that the shots themselves weren't necessary, but the only truly necessary shot's a block. Gotta get the runs somehow, and Australian bats are brought up on the cut.

FFS - that's EXACTLY what I am saying. I take it you've not played on a slow low pitch before. If you had of you would know you need to put those kind of shots away and be patient. Not mindlessly lash out as soon as you see something juicy outside off.

 

[Gethelred]

FFS - that's EXACTLY what I am saying. I take it you've not played on a slow low pitch before. If you had of you would know you need to put those kind of shots away and be patient. Not mindlessly lash out as soon as you see something juicy outside off.

?

You're telling me that Steve Smith, a bloke with infinitely more skill than either of us, should put away a shot which will get him 2 or 4 19 times out of 20 normally and 14 out of 20 times on this deck, just because it'll get you out 2-3 times out of 20?

And if Smith doesn't - and he leads by example - why on earth would the others?

I take your point, but this is really the only kind of arrogance Smith has displayed with his batting, and you would really think that once you've passed 70, you're entitled to take a few risks.

 

[iluvparis]

Fine for smith but what about the other two who have nowhere near as much skill?

Even for Smith, Cook has shown if you are patient enough it should be almost impossible for a world class batsmen to get out on this pudding.

 

[Gethelred]

Fine for smith but what about the other two who have nowhere near as much skill?

Even for Smith, Cook has shown if you are patient enough it should be almost impossible for a world class batsmen to get out on this pudding.

Cook got dropped in his 60's'; Cook's shown nothing more than what happens when you give a good player an opportunity to find form they will.

And, again, Smith leads by example, and Boof is an attacker as a coach, not a 'shelve the shot if it'll get you out' coach; it might be the right advice, but it's not obscene to suggest that Australian bats might actually play the cut pretty well and got unlucky a few times.

But you're getting off topic. The pitch played a role in most of the Australian dismissals; that they could've been prevented with different play is a hindsight call most people make after their shot selection has been poor. The pitch might not be conducive to attractive cricket - more attrition based play, especially for the bowling - but to say that it was all the fault of the batsman is reducing the role of England's discipline early on day 2.

Bowl your lines, bowl to your field, draw the false shot. Pretty simple, really.

 

[Ciderhound]

Great pitch,remember the old Melbourne pitches,variable bounce and grubbers on day one.

No but i will happily have it back after this 3 day snore fest.

 

[The Passenger]

Let's see how this Test goes but despite being from Melbourne the Boxing Day Test has probably been the most boring Test of the summer for quite a few years.

Boxing Day is one of the great days on the Australian sporting calendar. It would be nice to have a pitch that allows the cricket in the middle to be played in that spirit.

The pitch in this does not allow that and the MCG pitch has not done for quite some time.

Attrition is a part of a test cricket, but expecting crowds to cop it from day one is not right IMO. Yes it will happen from time to time and you just cop that on the chin but this is happening year in year out at the MCG so something is clearly not right.

I've been watching the highlights from the UK and even an hour or so a day has been tedious.

We may still get a grandstand finish but that will be nothing to do with the pitch and merely the circumstances of the way the game has played out. For that to happen it would be much like the way the 2006/07 Adelaide test played out - 4 days of tedious batting domination needing to be undone by a great spell from one of the greatest bowlers of all time against a team which had started to mentally capitulate. The great finish in 2006 was nothing to do with the pitch itself.

I feel sorry for people who look at a pitch like this and think isn't this great test match cricket. I feel it's simply nothing more than trying to convince oneself that all test cricket is simply an amazing spectacle no matter what, but this is simply not true. To truly love test match cricket you need to be able to criticise aspects of it. All grounds in Australia have had periods where they have not produced great cricket (and plenty of periods where they have produced great cricket) - at the moment it's the MCG being far too bland and the WACA for being far too batsmen friendly. Get the MCG back to what it was about a decade ago and the new Perth pitch resembling the WACA of 2012 and prior and it will be a great spread of pitches in this country.

 

[Stopher]

https://m.soundcloud.com/abc_grandstand/mcg-day-4-glen-maxwell-interview

Very interesting comments from Maxwell re the MCG pitches. All those questions are covered in the first 5 minutes or so.

 

[Run n Spread]

Melbourne has got away with producing shithouse wickets for years due to the Boxing Day Hype and/or personalities dominating the game and lead up so escape scrutiny.

That was the most boring, predictable, bad test match I've seen.

 

[Martyn_30_]

This was a shocking pitch but there’s nothing wrong with drop ins, Adelaide is a much better pitch since it became a drop due to the fact they’ve left more grass on it. The issue most likely at the mcg this year is there’s no head curator who recently left for the Gabba and the new one hasn’t started. Three shield draws and a test draw shows they don’t know what they’re doing. It doesn’t matter what the ground if you don’t have much grass the ball wont do anything unless it breaks up for the spinners.


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[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Interesting article here. Sounds like it has been an unsettled period for the MCG groundstaff

https://www.foxsports.com.au/cricke...e/news-story/5438953f8c1a3a2f5e2a14ecef8cf5e4