Some of the biggest names in Ashes cricket have attacked the state of the MCG pitch after a record crowd saw 20 wickets fall on a Boxing Day blowout in Melbourne.
An official crowd of 94,199 broke the attendance record at the country’s biggest sporting venue, eclipsing the 2015 World Cup final and setting a new high watermark for this historic rivalry.
But while they were treated to a flood of non-stop action on a green track that offered frequent and occasionally drastic sideways movement, the sight of both teams being bowled out in less than 76 overs may have been overkill.
Not since 1909 had two innings previously been completed on the first day of an Ashes Test. England struck first, blowing the hosts away for 152 to give themselves a chance of saving face in a series that has already slipped through their fingers, but were even less prepared to tackle tricky conditions.
Faced with a skilful and relentless Australia attack, they buckled for 110 all out in just 29.5 overs – the smallest total and shortest innings of the fast-fading Bazball era. The average score per wicket was just 13.1, with Harry Brook’s devil-may-care 41 the best from either side.
And the verdict from the commentary booths was scathing. “That first-day wicket is a shocker, it really is,” bemoaned 2005 Ashes-winning captain Michael Vaughan on Fox Sports.
Sir Alastair Cook, who ground out a belligerent 244 on a flat MCG deck in 2017, was in agreement on Test Match Special, adding: “We have to talk a little bit about this wicket. It’s been too heavily weighted towards the bowlers.
“They didn’t have to work that hard for wickets. Could both sides have batted better? Yes. But I was watching some of the bowling on that pitch and I was thinking: ‘How do you face that?’ Mitchell Starc was bowling round the wicket, some were nipping miles that way and some nipping miles the other way. I don’t know how you hit it. It’s a bit of an unfair contest.”
On SEN Radio, the former England bowler Stuart Broad said: “It has just done far too much. The pitch is doing too much if I’m brutally honest. Test match bowlers don’t need this amount of movement to look threatening.”
Even Ricky Ponting, the former Australia captain, was questioning the contest, despite his former side ending the day 46 runs in front with all 10 second-innings wickets intact. “We found out there is 10mm of grass that has been left on this particular surface. Last year, which was a Test match that went late into day five, we believe there was only 7mm of grass on that one,” he said on Channel 7.
“That will be the question that is going to be asked of the groundsmen – why did you leave more grass this year than previous years?”
The result could blow another major hole in Cricket Australia’s finances, following a two-day finish in the series opener in Perth. That cost at least £1.5m in ticket sales, with further big hits sustained via lost revenue in the bars and food courts.
