Harbhajan Singh made an excellent point about Test pitches needing to produce results. The Indian offspinner commented on the lifeless Test match against Sri Lanka at Colombo. A staggering 1402 runs were scored for a mere 17 wickets on a pitch that offered no assistance for the bowlers.
Harbhajan told Hindustan Times that such lifeless pitches brought nothing to Test cricket, “not even spectators”.
“You just can’t have one-sided contests where the batsmen dominate,” he said. “The seamers run in and bowl their hearts out and get nothing out of it. There should be some purchase on the first two days. Later on, if the spinners bowl well, they should get bounce, if not turn.
People say Test cricket is dying. It is because of such one-sided contests. If you look at series in Australia and England, they get a lot of results because they produce good wickets, wickets that are true. That’s the way it should be everywhere.
via Cricinfo.com.
It is basically the same point Alex Bowden made earlier this week, but it is such a good one that I am happy to post it again and again.
I know. Ze zijn zoveel manieren aan het uitproberen om weer leven te scheppen in Test cricket, maar het grootste probleem hangt juist aan de dooie pitches af.
Jep, het is onbegrijpelijk. Those dead pitches creating no results is why people find Test cricket increasingly boring I think.
Also, Pakistan being so poor doesn’t help either. I love to see England win, but such one-sided games aren’t much fun watching.