Solid marks for West Indies World T20 pitches

During the recent ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, the iconic Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados hosted nine of the 52 matches played over the course of three weeks. Among those was the final, where India defeated South Africa by seven runs.

This week, the world governing body for cricket revealed its ratings for the pitches and outfields used in all World Cup fixtures. Pitches and outfields are marked post-match by the ICC Match Referee on duty. The rating is then provided as feedback to the host Member Board to assist in future pitch and outfield preparations for international matches at the relevant venue.

In addition, if a pitch or outfield is marked as substandard, the board and the venue are required to explain why the pitch and/or outfield performed below the required standard. A pitch or outfield is deemed to be substandard if it receives a rating of unsatisfactory or unfit.

Just under two months since the last ball was bowled, the results are in. The ICC shared a spreadsheet containing all the ratings on Wednesday.

The West Indies grounds largely passed with flying colours. 18 games had pitches rated as very good for both pitch and outfield. Included in that number was the final, as well as the Super Eights game in which West Indies defeated the USA by nine wickets. The highest possible rating is “very good.”

For the other seven games, however, the Kensington pitch was marked as having a satisfactory pitch and a very good outfield. Of venues that hosted more than one game, only Saint Lucia’s Daren Sammy Cricket Ground (DSCG) got very good marks across the board.

There were eight “satisfactory” ratings for outfields, and 34 such for pitches. But three pitches got report cards with “unsatisfactory” pitches.

The Nassau County Stadium in New York, USA was rated unsatisfactory for its first two matches in the group stages. In the space of three days, Sri Lanka was bowled out for 77 against South Africa and Ireland were dismissed for 96 by India.

Infamously, a modular drop-in pitch was used for that venue. Those two games alo returned only a “satisfactory” grade for the outfield. Of eight matches in New York, none got a very good pitch rating, but the outfield was deemed very good for three games. Those games produced a lacklustre average run rate of just over five per over.

The only other pitch deemed substandard was at the Brian Lara Academy in Tarouba, Trinidad & Tobago, for the semifinal between Afghanistan and South Africa. Afghanistan was skittled out for just 56 runs by South Africa.

England produced the tournament’s third-highest total, 201-7, in their group match against Australia. That match was played in Barbados. The venue also saw five other totals in excess of 160 runs. Behind Dallas and the DSCG, the Oval was the third-fastest scoring ground in the tournament, with runs coming at 7.78 per over.

(TF)