The Lord’s pitch for the Test series opener featuring England and New Zealand has been deemed “unsatisfactory” by the ICC after bowlers dominated the fixture. The historic venue has received one demerit point following the cricket governing body’s pitch and outfield team evaluation. England, who bowled first in the Test match, ended up securing a commanding 115-run win. The game was wrapped up early on the fourth day after New Zealand were bundled out for 138 while chasing 254 in the second innings.
While the surface offered variable bounce and a lot of seam movement, regular rain intervals also affected it. Even England captain Ben Stokes expressed his discontent over the “extreme conditions.” Shockingly, all 40 wickets across both innings, most of which were bowled or LBW, were down in the space of just 996 balls, resulting in the shortest Test match at Lord’s in nearly 140 years.
What did ICC match referee say in ENG vs NZ 1st Test pitch report?
Andy Pycroft, who was in charge of the match, stated in his report, “There was plenty of excessive seam movement throughout the Test and the ball also kept extremely low on several occasions. The bounce was variable throughout as 16 wickets fell on the first day and 17 on the second. There was simply an over-balance in favour of ball against bat caused by the pitch.”
Though the MCC, who runs the Lord’s cricket ground, has admitted to the below-par quality of the surface, the ECB can appeal against the sanction in 14 days.
MCC executive reacts to ICC’s sanctions
The MCC acknowledged that the pitch had not behaved in the way they expected. They have already taken up major initiatives to improve the conditions in recent years, with the pitch having been steamed.
“We recognise that the pitch for this Test has shown more variable bounce than we would have wanted. We hold ourselves to the highest standards and are naturally frustrated when a surface falls short of those expectations,” chief executive Rob Lawson said. He also pledged to rectify the errors quickly.
