Watch: Sheffield Shield Match Suspended Due To Dangerous MCG Pitch

The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) pitch is once again hogging all the limelight for all the wrong reasons after the clash between Western Australia and Victoria at the iconic venue was suspended due to unpredictable bounce. The match officials took the decision after Western Australia batsmen Shaun Marsh and Marcus Stoinis were hit multiple times.

Play was suspended on day one with Western Australia on 89 for 3 with Stoinis on 2* and Cameron Green on 7*. Marsh was already back in the hut after scoring 14. According to cricket.com.au, the umpires held a lengthy conversation with the two captains Peter Handscomb and Marsh along with chief curator Matt Page, after a ball from Andrew Fekete reared off a length and struck Stoinis in the ribs.

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That delivery made the officials take the big decision of suspending the game as they deemed the pitch dangerous for play. In case, the game does not restart, the points will be split between the two teams. Earlier, visiting teams in abandoned matches used to get six points, the same amount a team gets for a win.

But after Victoria were awarded full points as the visiting team when a game at the SCG in 2015 was called off due to an unsafe outfield, Cricket Australia changed the rules for the following season. Consequently, both Western Australia and Victoria will get three points each in addition to “the average total bonus points that were accumulated per team across the other two matches played in the round of the abandoned match”.

Here is a clip showing just how dangerously the ball behaved on the pitch:

The #SheffieldShield match between Western Australia and Victoria was suspended due to the state of the MCG pitch.

Oh dear, those blows look brutal ?pic.twitter.com/iyCFoH3xcX

— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) December 7, 2019

Focus on Boxing Day Test:

The latest incident has firmly shifted the focus on the upcoming Boxing Day Test between the hosts and New Zealand at the MCG. The MCG pitch has come under heavy scrutiny in recent times. In the last few years, the pitch attracted criticism for being too lifeless. Following the 2017-18 drawn Ashes Test in Melbourne, the ICC gave the wicket a ‘poor’ rating after the batsmen scored heavily in the game. And when Australia hosted India at the venue last year, the pitch received an ‘average’ rating.