The Indore pitch, which played host to the third Test between India and Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, has been reviewed by the International Cricket Council (ICC) after a Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) appeal. Earlier, the pitch at Indore was handed three demerit points after ICC Match Referee Chris Broad rated the pitch 'poor' with the BCCI promptly using the 14 days given by the ICC to challenge the decision.
After their challenge, the ICC appeal panel, consisting of ICC General Manager (Cricket) Wasim Khan and ICC Men’s Cricket Committee Member Roger Harper were of the opinion that while the guidelines had been followed by the Match Referee in accordance with Appendix A of the Pitch Monitoring Process, it was deemed that there was not enough excessive variable bounce to warrant the 'poor' rating. Instead, the appeal panel concluded that the pitch should be rated as “below average”.
Consequently, only one demerit point has been awarded to the venue for the 'below average' rating as compared to the earlier three.
This was the same pitch that saw the third Test between India and Australia wrapped up within three days. The match referee said that the pitch gave an undue advantage to spinners as 14 wickets fell during Day 1. A total of 31 wickets fell during the third Test match, out of which 26 were snared by the spinners while just four wickets were taken by pacers as one was run out.
“The pitch, which was very dry, did not provide a balance between bat and ball, favouring spinners from the start. The fifth ball of the match broke through the pitch surface and continued to occasionally break the surface providing little or no seam movement and there was excessive and uneven bounce throughout the match,” Match referee Broad said when the initial rating was announced.
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