"It was a bit of an unfair contest" - England skipper blasts MCG pitch after Boxing Day collapse
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Former England skipper Alastair Cook slammed Cricket Australia for the unconventional pitch at the Melbourne Cricket Ground during the Boxing Day Test match. He claimed the wicket to be very unconventional, and the bowlers were favoured to an extent that they did not work hard for the wickets.
England, which has already lost the Ashes series against Australia, entered the fourth Test of the series at the MCG. England, for the first time, was in the driving seat, but then failed to keep up the momentum in the second innings.
Poor MCG track favoured one-sided domination of pacers
Australia and England advanced to the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the fourth match in the ongoing Ashes series. Day 1 of the Boxing Day Test saw both teams lose 20 wickets in the day.
Both the Australian and England batters struggled to settle down at the crease, and even the well-set batters failed to read the bounce well. The challenging conditions are reflected on the scorecard as well, since a single batter failed to register a single half-century.
Australia was bowled out for just 152 runs in the innings but yet managed a 42-run lead, as England was bowled out for just 110 runs in their innings.
"The bowlers didn't have to work that hard for wickets," said the England star
Alastair Cook, the legendary English opener, made a blunt assessment of the pitch condition on the opening day of the Boxing Day Test. The pitch failed to provide a fair contest with equal help for both the batters and bowlers.
"This is not a great Test wicket. Unless this flattens out on days two, three and four, if we get there, then that was too heavily weighted in the bowlers' favour. The bowlers didn't have to work that hard for wickets," Cook said on TNT Sports.
Cook admitted that the batters had several shortcomings in the batting innings, but also claimed that the bowlers had the pitch largely in their favour.
"Could both sides have batted slightly better? Yes, but if you put the ball in the right area, it was going to nip either way. It was a bit of an unfair contest," he added.
"The pitch should flatten out tomorrow," Cook concluded
The former English opener highlighted how difficult conditions were for batters in the MCG track, especially when facing Australian pacer Scott Boland. Boland had shown relentless accuracy and movement off the pitch.
"I was watching Boland, in particular, and I was thinking, 'I don't know how you face that.' To left-handers, he was running in from around the wicket, attacking the stumps; some were nipping miles one way, some nipping miles the other. I also don't know where you go as a right-hander," Cook observed.
"The pitch should flatten out tomorrow [Saturday], but the groundsman was telling me he doesn't think it will," he concluded on the matter, claiming that there has been a major doubt on the change in behaviour of the track.
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England National Cricket Team Australia National Cricket Team England vs Australia The Ashes Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) Alastair Cook ICC World Test Championship (WTC)About the Author
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