For the first time in an Ashes series, 2 test matches ended in just 2 days. The ICC described the Perth pitch as ‘very good’ and the Melbourne pitch as ‘unsatisfactory’. Travis Head’s century in Perth proved the pitch to be better, while in Melbourne no batsman could score a half-century.
For the first time in the history of more than a hundred years of Test cricket, it happened that two matches of the same series ended within just two days. This happened in the ongoing Ashes series between England and Australia. Australia won the first Test in Perth in just 847 balls. At the same time, in the Boxing Day Test, England defeated Australia in just 142 overs. But here one more thing confused the cricket fans, that was the rating given by ICC to both the pitches. Both the test matches ended in a similar manner in two days. ICC described Perth’s pitch as very good, while Melbourne’s pitch was considered unsatisfactory. Let us know the reason behind this decision of ICC.
Very Good – This rating was given by ICC to the pitch of Perth. Remember that 19 wickets fell on the first day in Perth, and 20 in Melbourne. Let us see how ICC considers a pitch as ‘very good’ in Test cricket. Pitches that support both batsmen and bowlers equally, that is, there is no movement beyond a certain limit and the bounce is consistent in the initial hours. On the contrary, pitches are considered ‘unsatisfactory’.
By the end of England’s second innings in the Perth Test, the match could have gone either way, although England had the upper hand. England’s first innings score was 172, and Australia’s 132. England were reduced to 164 in the second innings. Chasing the target of 205 runs, Australia played a master stroke. He sent Travis Head as the opener. Australia won the match in Perth in just 28 overs, losing just two wickets.
Head, who scored 123 runs in 83 balls, was the hero of the victory. This innings of Head made one thing clear that the Perth pitch was not bad for batting. Not only Head, another Australian player Marnus Labuschagne also scored a half-century. Harry Brook had also achieved the same feat for England. Brook’s innings came on the first day, when 19 wickets had fallen.
There was a lot of criticism of England’s ‘baseball’ thinking in Perth. The batsmen were throwing away their wickets by playing unnecessary shots. If England had changed their style, perhaps the outcome of the match would have been different. But, by the time we reached Melbourne, the situation changed completely. 20 wickets fell on the first day and 16 on the second day. England won the match by four wickets, but no batsman could score a half-century. Head, who scored 46 runs, was Melbourne’s top scorer.
The average of the batsmen in Melbourne was only 15.8 and their control was also limited to 69%. But in Perth the batting average was above 20 and control reached 75%. It can be said that the main reason for this was the innings of the head. If that innings had not happened, perhaps Perth would have got the same rating as Melbourne. Cricket Australia has not suffered any small loss due to these matches which ended in two days. There has been a loss of about 30 million dollars. ICC has also given one demerit point to Melbourne.