What exactly is a ‘good’ pitch? #cwc2011

So England, somehow, beat South Africa in Chennai by six runs. At one point, South Africa, chasing just 171 to win, were 124 for 3.

Fantastic, you may think. Yet another tight game at the World Cup. What more could you want from a game of cricket?

Well, quite a lot apparently. Simon Mann on Test Match Special said the pitch was not good enough. Jonathan Agnew went as far as saying that he hoped we wouldn’t see a similar pitch for England’s remaining group games, against Bangladesh and the West Indies.

But surely we must get away from thinking that the best pitches are those that are just good for batting. Aren’t the best pitches those that give an equal opportunity to both bat and ball?

And I think we came closer to that today in Chennai, than we did in the high scoring tie against India in Bangalore.