Australia stand-in captain Steve Smith was highly critical of the Melbourne track after the Boxing Day Test came to a conclusion within two days. England won the fourth Ashes Test by four wickets and registered their first victory in almost 15 years on Australian soil. They chased down the 175-run target rather comfortably on the second day to win their first Test in Australia since 2011.
A total of 20 wickets fell on the first day as the bowlers totally dominated over the batters. The same pattern followed on Day 2 with 16 scalps falling within three sessions. Smith expressed his dissatisfaction with the pitch following the conclusion of the match. He remarked that 36 wickets falling within two days isn't a good thing, adding that the curators should have the cut the grass down a little more.
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“Yeah, I think a little bit too much. It was tricky, no one could really get in. I think when you see 36 wickets across two days, that’s probably too much. So probably it did a little bit more than they (the curators) would have wanted. Maybe if we drop it (the grass) down to 8mm, it’d be about right, potentially,” Smith said during the post-match presentation.
Smith left disappointed with the batting display
Smith also said that the batters didn't perform at their best during the match and added that things could have been very different if they had scored 50 or 60 runs more on the board across both the innings.
“Tricky one, obviously a very quick game. If we’d managed that extra 50 or 60 runs across both innings, we probably would’ve been right in the contest at the end. I think it did a fair amount throughout the game, just probably when the ball softened after a few lusty blows from their top order today, it started to do a little bit less potentially. But without that, I think it was still going to offer plenty,” Smith added.
Series finale to be played in Sydney
Meanwhile, the Ashes stands at 3-1 following England's victory in Melbourne. Australia had secured the series triumph with wins in the first three Tests, but they still won't go down easily in the fifth and final match that will be held in Syedney and will commence from January 4.