The ICC has handed the Indore pitch a “poor” rating after the third Test between Australia and India lasted just over two days.
The dustbowl surface at Holkar Stadium spun from the opening hour of play on Day 1 and had plenty of variable bounce across the 188 overs bowled.
Australia’s fourth-innings run chase of 1-78 saw a total of just 547 runs scored across the Test. In a series that has been dominated by spin, batters of both countries found the Indore conditions the most difficult of all.
Match referee Chris Broad’s rating of the pitch sees Holkar Stadium incur three demerit points.
“The pitch, which was very dry, did not provide a balance between bat and ball, favouring spinners from the start,” Broad said in an ICC statement.
“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.”
A pitch can be handed a ‘poor’ rating if offers excessive seam movement, excessive uneven bounce or excessive assistance to spinners.
A ‘poor’ rating is second only to ‘unfit’ which would see a stadium banned from hosting international cricket for five years.
Had the pitch been deemed ‘unfit’, it would have seen five demerit points allocated and the stadium banned from hosting international cricket for 12 months.
The Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) has two weeks to appeal the decision.