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  Cricket Australia to act on bat-friendly surfaces

Cricket Australia to act on bat-friendly surfaces

AGENCIES
Published : Jan 21, 2016, 11:13 pm IST
Updated : Jan 21, 2016, 11:13 pm IST

Cricket Australia officials on Thursday admitted they have been left under-whelmed by the theme of flat wickets this summer, from the Test portion of the season to Australia and India’s one-day series

Australia opener Aaron Finch smashed a run-a-ball 107 in the fourth ODI on Wednesday. 	— AP
 Australia opener Aaron Finch smashed a run-a-ball 107 in the fourth ODI on Wednesday. — AP

Cricket Australia officials on Thursday admitted they have been left under-whelmed by the theme of flat wickets this summer, from the Test portion of the season to Australia and India’s one-day series run feast.

A total of 671 runs were scored by the two teams in the fourth match of the series in Canberra, the third most ever in an ODI in Australia, with the contest utterly dominated by the bat until India’s stunning late meltdown.

“In an ideal world we’ve got some of the best fast bowlers in the world who like it hard, fast and bouncy and we’re not getting that at the moment,” CA’s general manager of team performance Pat Howard was quoted as saying in the Sydney Morning Herald.

One-day pitches are generally on the flatter side of the spectrum but even by usual standards and with Australia fielding inexperienced bowling line-ups this series has been extraordinary as both teams passed 300 in three of the four games.

After a Test summer in which only Adelaide Oval offered substantial assistance to bowlers it is a dilemma CA intends to address with groundsmen around the country.

They have a policy of not interfering directly with pitch preparation for each match but speak to curators as a group before and after every season, and are adamant there needs to be a better balance between bat and ball across the board in international games.

“We’re after the old fair balance between bat and ball and the unique characteristics (of each ground). And we do try and get the domestic cricket to try and mirror the Test stuff so we’ll have to sit down and do that at the end of the year and make sure we get those better aligned. The balance probably hasn’t been as good as we’d like this year.”

Location: Australia, Capital Region, Canberra