The drought is over.
Fifteen years later, England finally won another Test in Australia after a fast-paced clash over two days at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Talk of a 5-0 whitewash can now be parked, but with 36 wickets falling in just 142 overs in a wild game, you sense there will be more talk about the MCG surface, which features 10mm of grass.
In those 142 overs, not a single one was bowled by a spinner dominated by seamers on a grassy pitch where no batsman passed 50 runs. Travis Head’s 46 points for the hosts were the best.
The quick wrap-up will cost Cricket Australia millions of dollars as ticket refunds are issued and the organization loses merchandise, food and beverage sales.
CA CEO Todd Greenberg said: sen radio Before day two: “The simple expression I like to use is that short tests are bad for business. It couldn’t be more blunt.
“Historically, we have taken a hands-off approach to all wicket preparations, but when you look at the impact it has on the sport, especially commercially, there is no reason not to be more involved.”
Sir Alastair Cook said the first day’s deck had created “unfair competition” as 20 wickets fell, while another former England captain, Michael Vaughan, called it “shocking”.
But what did Sky Sports’ ground forces Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain do on a grassy wicket as this Ashes series experienced its second two-day fixture in four Tests after missing the opening contest in Perth by the blink of an eye?
Travis Head’s 46 home runs in two innings is the highest score in a Test at the MCG.
‘Shane Warne probably didn’t think that pitch was acceptable’
Hussein said: “I don’t think the great Shane Warne would have thought that was acceptable and I don’t think there was any spin at all and too much movement on the surface.
“It was comical at times. It could be thrilling, but there are traditionalists who like the ebb and the slow build. This was fast-forward, not slow, and we’ve had plenty of that through the T10s, T20s and The Hundred.”
Hussain then asked fellow pundit Atherton whether he thought the MCG surface was suitable for Test cricket.
Athers said: “It was fair for both sides in that it wasn’t dangerous and didn’t change. It was a penalty shoot-out on a difficult pitch. But in terms of spectacle it’s not satisfactory.”
Australia captain Steve Smith said the MCG surface was too big.
“There was absolutely no bowling spin in the game and with 90,000 people getting tickets for day three, Cricket Australia is going to absolutely bomb.
“Some players are saying that the only way to play on the pitch is in an unorthodox way, which feels unsatisfactory for a number of reasons.
“I liken this to one of the rank switches we’ve seen in Asia in recent years, where the pitch rotates from the start. It’s a fair competition in the sense that both sides have an equal opportunity but can’t necessarily showcase their full range of skills.
“England supporters will obviously be delighted to see a win and so will the England players, but people watching will be thinking, ‘What kind of Test cricket have I seen?’
“You come to see the different skills and how the game evolves over time. Sometimes you’ll run into extreme situations, but now that there are two situations in this series, I don’t think you’ll want to see that too often.”
Stokes: The MCG pitch will be ‘hell’ anywhere else
England captain Ben Stokes said his feedback, consistent with the umpire’s, about the playing surface was “probably not the best”, adding: “To be brutally honest, that’s not what you want in a Boxing Day Test match.”
“You don’t want the game to be over in two days. I’m sure it would be hell if it were any other place in the world.”
When reporters asked whether Stokes was referring to Asian pitches that can spin tremendously, he said, “That’s yours, not mine.”
Ben Stokes was one of the seamers who thrived on green wickets in Melbourne.
“I think the pitch was too big. It was tricky,” said Australia skipper Steve Smith, who replaced the rested Pat Cummins.
“If you look at 30-odd wickets over two days, that’s probably too many. You might want to get the grass down from 10mm to 8mm.
“It would have been nice if it had been a little longer so we could have entertained the fans more, but we couldn’t.”
Ashes series 2025-26 in Australia
Australia leads the five-game series 3-1.
