Steve Smith thinks the Melbourne Cricket Ground pitch will have a lot more to give after the first Test between Australia and South Africa was completed in less than two days. Test expert Steve Smith stated that the Gabba green-top was the hardest pitch he encountered in Australia during the first Test, which was played at The Gabba in Brisbane.
The game saw a total of 34 wickets fall in just six sessions, and Australia won by six wickets to wrap up the match early. On Australian soil, the first Test ended up being the shortest test match in 91 years. Everyone anticipated the series opener to be a rollercoaster, but it actually wasn’t. “As a batter, I’d like it to do a little bit less. I think it’s a fine balance just trying to get that even contest between bat and ball. It [the Gabba] was probably the most difficult wicket I’ve played on here in Australia,” Smith said.
During the post-game press conference, South Africa’s captain Dean Elgar criticized the field as unsafe and expressed his extreme displeasure with the way the surface had turned out. He even admitted that he had asked the umpires whether the pitch would be deemed hazardous to play at one point during the game. Smith said that he occasionally found himself taken off guard.
“I think there were a few instances that the ball did some stuff that was just out of nowhere. Some balls were sitting in the wicket, making divots, some were zinging through and it was just incredibly hard to bat again. Whether it was unsafe or not, it’s not really my place to judge, but it certainly wasn’t easy to bat,” he added.
After seeing how the game unfolded, the ICC classified the Gabba pitch as “below ordinary,” while match referee Richie Richardson said that it “was not an equitable duel between bat and ball.” Now, both teams will be concentrating on the second Test, sometimes known as the boxing day Test, which will begin on December 26 at the MCG.
