Australia reclaimed their dominance at the Gabba on Sunday after defeating South Africa by 6 wickets in the first encounter of the 3-match Test series. Surprisingly, the game ended within two days with a total of 34 wickets falling before the result was obtained.
Both teams are battling for a spot in the World Test Championship (WTC) final and the victory has certainly given Australia an edge over the Proteas. However, the visitors weren’t happy with the track used at the Gabba which had a rich cover of grass, allowing fast bowlers to wreak havoc. It also developed divots on the first day which dried out and caused further problems.
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Visiting skipper Dean Elgar condemned the pitch stating that such strips would do nothing but hamper the popularity of Test cricket.
“The divots definitely played a big role with the sideways movement, the up and down and obviously the steep bounce, which is quite something to face. And also, today the older ball was flying through which really shouldn’t be happening. You’ve got to ask yourself if that’s a good advertisement for this format,” said Elgar after the game.
Meanwhile, former India opener Virender Sehwag shared two scorecards on his social media accounts with different captions. One was of the recently-concluded Gabba Test and the other one was on India vs England day-night Test, played in Ahmedabad last year. Both ended in a span of 2 days with the hosts winning by a decent margin. But Sehwag tried to draw a comparison of how Australia’s victory was termed as the ‘beauty of Test cricket’ while India’s triumph led to criticism for the Motera pitch.
“Twaada kutta kutta, saada kutta Tommy Hypocrisy ki bhi seema hoti hai,” Sehwag wrote on Instagram.
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Sehwag took to Twitter and once again highlighted that if the same thing had happened in India, the pitch would have been heavily criticised.
“142 overs and not even lasting 2 days and they have the audacity to lecture on what kind of pitches are needed. Had it happened in India, it would have been labelled end of test cricket, ruining test cricket and what not. The Hypocrisy is mind-boggling,” Sehwag wrote.
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The win sees Australia move further ahead at the top of the World Test Championship standings, while South Africa are overtaken by India and drop to third as a result of the loss, the ICC said in a statement.
Australia now hold a 76.92 win percentage, with India (55.77) now ahead of South Africa (54.55) following their 188-run triumph over Bangladesh in Chattogram earlier in the day.
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