On Tuesday, ICC has announced that, the pitch which was used in the third and the final Test between India and South Africa as the Wanderers in Johannesburg has received a ‘poor’ rating, and three demerit points for the same.
Umpires inspecting Wanderers pitch
The demerit points will remain active for a period of five years, during which if the Wanderers reaches the threshold of five demerit points, it will be suspended from hosting international matches for a period of one year.
Describing the same, referee Pycroft said,“The pitch prepared for the final Test was a poor one. It had excessively steep and unpredictable bounce and excessive seam movement. It deteriorated quickly as the match progressed, which made batting extremely difficult and hazardous, resulting in the medical staff from both the sides having to come onto the field of play multiple times to treat their batsmen.”He further elaborated,“As the on-field umpires are also responsible for the players’ safety, they expressed concerns about the behavior of the pitch and debated after day three if it was appropriate to continue the match. In the end, the umpires made the decision to continue and the Test reached its natural conclusion on day four. However, there was still excessive variable bounce and seam movement when the Test match ended.”
The batsmen of both the team found it pretty difficult on the pitch as it was having uneven bounce due to cracks and some lateral moments as well. Most of the batsmen from both the teams felt some bruises while batting because of some firing deliveries from the bowlers.
In the end, it wasTeam India, who end up winning the Test by a margin of 63 runs in under four days but lost the series 1-2 to the Proteas.
