Shillong, March 27: Following an appeal from the Indian cricket board (BCCI), the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday acknowledged that the ‘poor’ classification for the pitch used for the 3rd Test between India and Australia in Indore earlier in the month has been revised to ‘below average’.
Match referee Chris Broad harshly critiqued the conditions, claiming that the Holkar Cricket Stadium pitch did not provide enough balance between bat and ball. The BCCI then filed an appeal against the grading. The Pitch Monitoring Process, which the ICC uses to grade pitches at the conclusion of every match.
During Day 1 of the third Test at Indore, as many as 14 wickets fell, and spinners claimed 26 of the 31 wickets in the match.
The test match only lasted two days and one session because Australia won it by nine wickets. On their most recent journey to India for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Australia only managed to claim one victory.
Spinners had an early advantage thanks to the pitches that were used in Nagpur and New Delhi for the first two games. They did, however, receive “average” rating from the international body’s governing body.
An ICC appeal panel made up of Roger Harper, a member of the ICC Men’s Cricket Committee, and Wasim Khan, the ICC General Manager of Cricket, reviewed the footage of the match.
Both felt that even though the Match Referee had followed the rules in accordance with Appendix A of the Pitch Monitoring Procedure, there had not been enough excessive variable bounce to justify the classification of “poor”.