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Shortest-ever Test match between India and South Africa escapes harshest penalty from ICC
The Newlands Test match is rated ‘unsatisfactory’ by ICC match referee Chris Broad.
The shortest-ever match in Test cricket history played last week between India and South Africa at Newlands in Cape Town was sanctioned as per ICC match referee Chris Broad’s verdict on Tuesday and deemed ‘unsatisfactory’. The fiery pitch that saw 33 wickets fall in mere 642 balls for 464 runs, producing the lowest ever dismissal rate (19.4 balls), however, wasn’t given the harshest punishment.
As per ICC’s pitch and outfield monitoring process, pitches rated ‘unsatisfactory’ are awarded one demerit point while those judged ‘unfit’ are given three demerit points against their name. A venue with six demerit points is suspended from hosting any international cricket for 12 months.
“The pitch in Newlands was very difficult to bat on. The ball bounced quickly and sometimes alarmingly throughout the match, making it difficult to play shots. Several batters were hit on the gloves and many wickets also fell due to the awkward bounce,” Broad said in his statement.
The ICC said the match referee before submitting his report consulted both captains South Africa’s Dean Elgar and India’s Rohit Sharma, ‘both of whom felt that the pitch was below standard’.
Broad’s verdict is unlikely to assuage India’s complaints that their home pitches are singled out for turning big from day 1. Sharma had taken it upon himself to take a swipe at ICC’s pitch monitoring process in his post-match comments. “I don’t mind being on pitches like this as long as everyone keeps their mouth shut and no one is talking about the pitches in India,” he had said.
“Honestly, I would like to see how the pitches are rated. Because Mumbai, Bangalore, Cape Town, Centurion, are all different venues… overhead conditions are different. Pitches deteriorate quite fast when the sun is beating down that hard on it. And in India as well, we know it will spin without a doubt, but obviously people don't like it because it spins from Day 1. But if the ball seams from ball one, that's okay? That's not fair.”
India’s issue goes back to the India-Australia Test in Indore, last year, which was given ‘poor’ rating from the same match referee. That Test lasted less than seven sessions, while the Cape Town Test ended in a little over four sessions. In Indore, 26 of the 31 wickets fell to spinners.
Earlier, former South Africa captain AB de Villiers had defended the Newlands Test match pitch that saw the game being completed inside five sessions.
“It was a pretty stock-standard wicket, in my opinion. I remember jumping around there on day one,” he said. “If you can just get through the first session on day one, it gets easier.”
The former Proteas batter had also raised questions of the batting prowess on offer from both the teams and how the bowlers encashed on the opportunity.
“I remember Ben Stokes scoring a double-hundred there. I scored some hundreds there. You cannot allow bowlers like Vernon Philander, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kagiso Rabada to keep bowling on off stump,” he added.
From the time the World Test Championship is in place, teams are actively looking to maximise home advantage. The Indian camp is at odds with the general narrative that pitches that starting spinning early are called poor, while those that aid excessive seam movement on day 1 are considered fine.
“What makes a good surface? Who defines this? Seam on the first day and then bat well and then spin on the last two days? Come on! Who makes all these rules, we need to get over it,” spinner R Ashwin had countered an English journalist in a heated press conference, during England’s last tour of India in 2021.
With the next set of Test matches against England at home set to begin on January 25 in Hyderabad, expect more surface tension in the air.
