Twenty wickets, a murmuring crowd and a strip that left almost everyone twitching. The MCG’s green, slightly furry deck stole the Boxing Day headlines as Australia and England were toppled for modest totals in the fourth Ashes Test.
Groundsman Matt Page had spoken of copying last summer’s Border-Gavaskar pitch, which lasted deep into the fifth afternoon. With 10 mm of grass – three more than a year ago – it already feels a very different beast. Fast bowlers found seam movement from ball one, and with overcast, cool weather both captains wanted to bowl. Neither side chose a specialist spinner.
Former players did not hold back. Commentating on SEN Radio, Stuart Broad said: “The pitch is doing too much, if I’m brutally honest. Test match bowlers don’t need this amount of movement to look threatening. Great Test matches pitches, generally, they bounce, but they don’t jag all over the place.”
Across on BBC coverage Glenn McGrath echoed the concern. “This pitch has got far too much grass on it… That pitch has got too much life in it for Test cricket… The Australians bowled well [but] it’s hard to apply yourself on a pitch that’s doing plenty because if you’re looking to defend, one’s got your name on it. You’ve got to find that balance between somehow keeping balls out while still looking to score.”
Since the 2017-18 Ashes draw, when the surface was branded lifeless, Melbourne has tried to restore pace and carry. Many feel the pendulum has swung too far. Alastair Cook, who made an unbeaten 244 on that old road, offered a measured verdict: “The bowlers didn’t have to work hard for their wickets. It was an unfair contest. I don’t know how you hit it. If this flattens out tomorrow then fine, it’s an even contest over three or four days. But I don’t think this is particularly even.”
Brett Lee, on Fox Cricket, could not resist a dig. Pat Cummins, resting his back, “was almost going to go back to the hotel to pick up his spikes,” Lee laughed, before adding: “I think there’s a bit too much in it. I wouldn’t be complaining at the end of the day if I was a fast bowler. It’s a different surface: it’s that furry feeling. I rubbed my hand on the side of the wicket this morning, and you can feel the grass lift up.”
Scott Boland, playing his first match of the series, nipped one through Harry Brook’s defence, a dismissal that summed up the afternoon – decent length, a hint of seam, and little the batter could do.
Remarkably, this is the second time in the series that all 22 players have batted on day one; 19 wickets tumbled in Perth on an energetic yet officially “very good” surface, memorably labelled a “piece of s*” by one player in the heat of the moment. Whatever rating the ICC’s pitch panel gives Melbourne, the match is unlikely to see a fourth-day crowd.
Page may argue that Test cricket needs a fair contest and that some life in the wicket keeps bowlers interested. The counter-argument, voiced forcibly by Broad and McGrath, is that too much sideways movement turns batting into survival rather than scoring. Somewhere between the two extremes lies the ideal MCG track – evidently, the search continues.
