Former Australian captain Michael Clarke was brutally honest in his assessment of the Sydney pitch, which was dished out for the fifth and final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, calling it 'extreme' as the New Year's clash got over in 2.5 days. Australia sealed the victory by chasing 162 runs in the fourth and final innings by six wickets with the Test lasting for just a little over 190 overs and won the series 3-1.
Clarke, who is a Sydney faithful, didn't mince his words despite Australia winning the Test match. "The SCG is my favourite ground in the world. It is my home ground. And I hate saying this out loud but that's the worst pitch I've seen in Sydney. I didn't think it was a good cricket wicket. Ball not just going up off the surface but also shooting low at the end of Day 2," Clarke said on ESPN's 'Around the Wicket' show.
"Australia won so I am not complaining but if we went to India and played and they produced a wicket like that regards to a raging turner and the game was over in two and a half days, I think all the Australian fans would be kicking up a stink," Clarke said.
Clarke mentioned that overall the wickets were tough for the batters through all five Tests with the bowlers getting the assistance throughout but conceded that Sydney was just extreme.
185 played 181 in the first innings before India were dismissed for 157 in their second innings. The balls were spitting off the surface astoundingly and some kept really low with all that grass on the surface. ICC too rated the SCG pitch for the India-Australia Test as satisfactory while handing the very good remark for all the other four venues including Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne.
India lost their captain Jasprit Bumrah to a back spasm for the final innings. Prasidh Krishna picked up a few wickets but wasn't enough as Travis Head and debutant Beau Webster took their side home.
