Is it a pitch perfect?
Has the slow Gabba pitch ensured the first Test will be a spectacle?
THE wicket produced for the Ashes series opener might be far from the beloved, traditional hard and fast Gabba deck.
It might not have been conducive to the sort of fast-paced cricket that the Test arena has increasingly moved towards.
But you know what? It has been a win for cricket.
Recent summers have followed a familiar pattern, played in conditions that can only be described as batsmen’s paradise. Bowlers offered little assistance as teams, especially Australia, rack up scores of 400-plus with ease.
This Test has had a vastly different feel about it – one of competitiveness and grit.
Until the hosts broke clear midway through yesterday, the match had all along been evenly poised.
Evenly poised between teams and, refreshingly, evenly poised in the contest between bat and ball. Turn has been on offer for Australia’s off-spinning cult hero, Nathan Lyon. Batsmen have had to work for runs, without being able to complain of a minefield.
Since the rise of Twenty20, batting in all formats has become more about entertainment and less about determination.
Seeing batters have to dig in and grind it out – refer to Steve Smith’s sublime 326-ball 141 – was a welcome return to what Test cricket is all about.
The first Test of the summer is still the highlight on most fans’ cricket calendar. Long live the battle. Long live Test cricket.
WE might have got the theatrics across the past few days, all sweaty palms and jangled nerves, but that didn’t have much to do with the deck the first Test has called home.
It’s true that few sporting dramas are scripted solely based on the venue at which they are played, but this one will be a reflection of the evenness of the teams – for the most part – rather than a temperamental pitch.
Truth be told, this wicket has not been a good one.
First Test of the summer – an Ashes, in fact – and we get served mineral water when we’re asking for soft drink.
It’s not bad. It’s not as though it’s unsafe of unfair, but it has lacked the true zip that any real cricket fan craves.
The No.1 requirement is to ensure a balance between bat and ball. This pitch has done that – by default.
All the talk leading up has been about our battery of quicks looking mean and bowling meaner.
You know, snarls that makes your chihuahua look meek.
Yet the pace wasn’t there on day one. Or day two. You want a spectacle? There was the missed opportunity, a trampoline disguised as a pitch which hardly had us ‘oohing’ and ‘aahing’ as we had hoped. Sure, this Ashes series shapes as a thrill-a-minute novel John Grisham would be happy to pen. Yet, again, that falls back onto two sides who, while willing, are more evenly matched than a cockerel and a rooster.
Let’s not slap down the Gabba’s curators but the fact remains the evenness of the sides at least negated a bland pitch.