SCG pitch receives "satisfactory" rating despite three-day finish

Surprisingly, ICC have given the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) pitch a “satisfactory” rating despite the fifth Border-Gavaskar Trophy clash ending in three days. Not just that, the world body has also deemed all the other pitches on the tour - Gabba, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide - as ‘very good’. 

There were a lot of criticisms surrounding the SCG pitch, with Australian cricketers Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja speaking of the two-paced nature of the wicket after the third day’s play. 

"I'm not gonna lie, I didn't want to talk about it too much beforehand, but the wicket was a stinker. It wasn't like a traditional SCG wicket with the new grass on it, there's cracks all over it, it's been tough batting, the scoreboard will tell you that. Thankfully, we were on the right side of the win but when it's a wicket like that you're always on a knife edge," Khawaja told ABC radio. 

However, that hasn’t deterred ICC from giving a solid rating, with Cricket Australia, too, gleaming about how the pitch was a step toward achieving a great finish to the five-match Test series.  

"The SCG has been striving to bring out their unique characteristics of early pace and bounce before the pitch wears and spins. This year was a step in the right direction to achieving this which provided an exciting finish to the Border Gavaskar Trophy series and bodes well for the Ashes summer in 2025-26," Cricket Australia said in a statement.

The entire Test only lasted 191 overs (three days), with 685 runs scored in the entire Test. Day Two saw 15 wickets fall in an unprecedented manner in Sydney. Australia eventually won the series 3-1 and lifted the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in over a decade.