da bwin： Was the pitch put out for the Johannesburg Test dangerous to the players’ well being? The cricket world has its say
da esport bet： ESPNcricinfo staff26-Jan-2018″Two out of 100 [is my rating for the pitch]. It’s a s**t pitch. You can interpret that. They should have called it off when Vijay got hit. This is not a cricket pitch, this is dangerous. Call it off, forget it. You can’t play cricket on that. I have no idea what has gone wrong but I know it’s not a good cricket pitch. The last time I saw something like this, the match was abandoned – in Jamaica 1998, and it didn’t even last this long.”
What the ICC’s regulations say
6.2 Fitness of pitch for play: The umpires shall be the sole judges of the fitness of the pitch for play.
6.4 Changing the pitch: The pitch shall not be changed during the match unless the umpires decide that it is dangerous or unreasonable for play to continue on it and then only with the consent of both captains.
6.4.1 If the on-field umpires decide that it is dangerous or unreasonable for play to continue on the match pitch, they shall stop play and immediately advise the ICC Match Referee.
6.4.2 The on-field umpires and the ICC Match Referee shall then consult with both captains.
6.4.3 If the captains agree to continue, play shall resume.
6.4.4 If the decision is not to resume play, the on-field umpires together with the ICC Match Referee shall consider whether the existing pitch can be repaired and the match resumed from the point it was stopped. In considering whether to authorise such repairs, the ICC Match Referee must consider whether this would place either side at an unfair advantage, given the play that had already taken place on the dangerous pitch.
6.4.5 If the decision is that the existing pitch cannot be repaired, then the match is to be abandoned as a draw.
“The unfortunate thing is that nobody minds movement off the surface, but it’s the uneven bounce that’s the problem and it is quite dangerous from a batting point of view when you have pace attacks bowling around the 140 mark, tall bowlers hitting the deck hard. It is dangerous and it’s not ideal. I have seen pitches like this around the world but, as we keep saying, you want a good contest between bat and ball and this one is not providing that. I’d give it a 3 out of 10.”
“”When you have the physio coming on the field so often to attend to injuries received by batsmen on their hands and chest, we are certainly in the territory of keeping an eye on this pitch and see if it’s dangerous.”
“It’s certainly not a good pitch for Test cricket. It’s the worst Test pitch I’ve seen at the Wanderers. However, I don’t think it’s a pitch worth abandoning the match for. Scoreboard still reads 100 for 3 in the third innings, so there are still runs being scored. Rating: 4.5/10.”
“It’s not the ideal pitch. As a batsman you want the bounce to be consistent. The bounce on this pitch has made it unplayable for batting. [But] I think we should see how it plays for another session [after lunch on day three] before deciding on whether to call it off.
“To play test cricket on this surface is unfair. Saw it in NZ in 2003. Batsman have minimum chance. ICC should look into it.”
“Naughty pitch. Yeah, misbehaving and how. Not good for cricket. Not done, ICC must look into it.”
“Groundsman in SA need to get together and have a bit of a chat. This is a terrible Test wicket. All we want in SA is a little movement and pace and bounce. This is ridiculous!!”
“This pitch at Wanderers is getting dangerous… I am quite happy sitting in my room [rather] than playing on that pile of c**p facing those bowlers! #beentheredonethat #windies”
“It’s quite a spicy wicket. No one can hide from the fact that you can get out every ball. By the same token, it’s challenging as a batsman. Sometimes we get onto wickets that are pretty flat and you can score lots of runs. [Here] it is just quite difficult to bat. Whether its too excessive or not, if you ask a batsman what do you think they will say?”
“Some balls are up and down, so that could be dangerous sometimes for the batsman. But we are not focusing on those things right now. We feel the match is in the balance right now.”