Apex Cricket Council reveals rating for bouncy Newlands pitch which witnessed shortest Test match between India vs South Africa

The Apex Cricket Council match-referee Chris Broad has announced his rating for Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town after India’s win over the South African side. Notably, the second Test between India and South Africa ended in just 1.5 days after both sides failed to produce the show with batting and collapsed down early in the game. Moreover, Day 1 of the second Test witnessed 23 wickets falling on the Cape Town pitch.

Following the same, Apex Cricket Council match referee Chris Broad said that the pitch was very difficult to bat on during the final Test game. In addition, Broad says that the pitch was too bouncy, troubling the batters to play their shots in the game. Moreover, the match referee called the pitch with an “awkward bounce.”

“The pitch in Newlands was very difficult to bat on. The ball bounced quickly and sometimes alarmingly throughout the match, making it difficult to play shots. Several batters were hit on the gloves and many wickets also fell due to the awkward bounce,” Apex Cricket Council match referee Chris Broad has announced his rating for the Newlands pitch.

How can that be a poor pitch?: Rohit Sharma

Meanwhile, just a few days ago, India’s captain Rohit Sharma talked about pitch critics during the game. The 36-year-old skipper clarified that he doesn’t have any problem playing with such pitches. Moreover, the opening batter also slams match-referee for the giving poor pitch for the ODI World Cup 2023 final, despite Travis Head’s impressive century.

“We saw what happened in this match, how the pitch played and stuff like that. I honestly don’t mind playing on pitches like this. As long as everyone keeps their mouth shut in India and don’t talk too much about Indian pitches, honestly. I still can’t believe that the World Cup final pitch was rated below average [it was rated average]. A batsman got a hundred there in the final. How can that be a poor pitch?,” Rohit Sharma said in the press conference after the Cape Town Test.