Cricket: Shield provides template for MCG pitch
An eight-wicket opening day at the MCG in November provided curator Matt Page the template for his perfect Boxing Day pitch.
An eight-wicket opening day at the MCG in November provided curator Matt Page the template for his perfect Boxing Day Test pitch which Cricket Australia is highly confident he’ll deliver next week.
Page and his staff are facing extra scrutiny after the Sheffield Shield disaster this month, when a match between Victoria and Western Australia was abandoned because of a dangerous pitch.
The pitch Page produced for the first Shield clash at the MCG this summer, when Queensland defeated Victoria in the final over of the fourth day, was rated “very good” by match officials.
Only rain on the opening day prevented more than the eight wickets taken by a Victorian attack, which included Test contenders James Pattinson and Peter Siddle.
The pitch was a result of Page “pushing the barrow” — a move endorsed by CA — after recent summers of lifeless MCG strips.
CA doesn’t expect an overcorrection from Page, despite the last-start disaster when excess moisture in the pitch allowed the ball to make divots which became dangerous when the surface hardened.
Instead Page has been encouraged to do what’s needed to create the type of pitch which was agreed upon by all parties at the start of the summer.
“I think it’s fair to say we are having a bigger involvement in this one given the circumstances,” CA’s operations manager Peter Roach said.
“But we want them to keep pushing for a pitch that has pace, carry, spin, seam and, hopefully over the course of the match, can deteriorate.
“We don’t want them to overreact and be too conservative.
“The first two Shield wickets, they got them right and we hope they back themselves to get this one right as well.
“I’m sitting here today with a real level of comfort that everything the MCG and MCC have done in the last couple of years … they are in as good a place as they can be to produce a really good Boxing Day Test wicket.”
It’s understood a later start to the abandoned match would have prevented the poor pitch, and the moisture readings taken by ground staff have been stored as part of a bank of data they can refer to if the situation arises again.
The pitch being used for Boxing Day hasn’t been played on since a Sheffield Shield game last summer. In that game Victoria defeated NSW, opener Marcus Harris made 250 and spinner Fawad Ahmed took six wickets.
Page and his staff have also had to deal with a range of weather conditions already this summer, with colder than usual temperatures leading into the last Shield game, while two days in excess of 40C this week will impact the preparation for Boxing Day.
Groundskeeping guru Les Burdett, who acts as CA’s pitch consultant, is expected back in Melbourne later this week.
Herald Sun
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