Eclipse said:
Actualy its wasent a slow pitch you idiot!
It was slow at times but on other occasions it bounced alrmingly off a good length evidence by the fact Ian Harvey was intimatading the batsman.
Lee would have been hard to handle because there was a heck of alot of swing and he is a swing bowler not to mention it was seaming a fair bit.
To be honest I thougt it looekd prity bad and the fact that the Netherland's considerd not playing the match because of the dangerus state of the pitch certainly highlights that fact.
The pitch had been severely affected by the weather, hence the desperate attempts to get it prepared.
I think the ground staff (assisted by the helicopter) did a remarkable job in getting it prepared for any sort of game.
Initially, the wicket appeared slow and low - that's because in part it was still very soft and partially because 'lesser' bowlers were using it - but as it slowly dried out after the second rain interruption the bounce became more and more unpredictable - certainly Jason Gillespie extracted a fair amount of zip out of it off 7 paces.
The team captains are also to be applauded in consenting to the game being staged. I understand that the umpires felt that the damage to the wicket left unanswered questions regarding the safety of the players.
The Dutch players were obviously desperate for the game to be played (with reservations) - this was, of course, a 'once in a lifetime' day for them. I'm sure that if either side had not felt like playing, no-one would have been surprised had the game been abandoned as a draw.
Once committed to the game, the Australians rushed through it just as quick as they could - 20+ overs per hour, how refreshing was that? Of course, there was always the possibility that they could have come unstuck a-la DL, but after half an hour or so of the Dutch innings that seemed highly unlikely.
