Even Labuschagne, who was coming off greater than 500 runs in two Tests in opposition to the West Indies, struggled on the Gabba the place 34 wickets fell inside two days play because the Aussies romped to victory on a inexperienced wicket practically the identical color because the outfield.
South African skipper Dean Elgar requested the umpires whether or not the pitch was protected through the recreation and continued that harsh criticism post-match.
“I did ask the umpires how long it goes on for before it is essentially unsafe,” he stated.
“That’s where the umpires’ discretion comes in — it’s not up to us players.”
While Australian captain Pat Cummins thought the wicket was “fine”, Labuschagne admitted it was “not ideal” for a Test match.
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“I think everyone understands that this is not what we want, that’s not the ideal scenario,” he instructed SEN.
“We love the pace of the wicket, we love the bounce, we love two fast bowling attacks going at it, but if we’re going to finish in under two days it’s obviously not ideal for Test cricket.
“But the reality is we’ve played on probably two of those in the last two years.”
Steve Smith, who made 36 within the first innings however solely six within the second as Australia misplaced 4-24 earlier than getting over the road, stated it was “probably the most challenging wicket I’ve seen in Australia” after the sport.
“It was like there were different areas of moisture on the wicket, so some balls were taking divots and going slow off the wicket, others were hitting harder parts of the wicket and zinging through,” Smith instructed cricket.com.au.
“So once those soft bits are hit, it creates some divots as well.
“You would‘ve seen a lot of the balls that hit the divots and either shot low or took off, so as a batter it’s very difficult to play against.”
There have solely been 21 Tests since 1877 which have produced a outcome inside two days and Elgar was fuming post-match with the state of the pitch after his facet was rolled for simply 99 in its second innings.
“Thirty-four wickets in two days – pretty one-sided affair, I would say,” he stated.
“How it started to play with some seriously steep bounce with the old ball, you are kind of on a hiding to none as a batting unit.
“If you think about it, only two or maybe three batters, applied themselves half-decently and scored runs.
“I don’t think it was a very good Test wicket, no.”
Labuschagne in the meantime stated the standard of bowling assaults on either side demanded a greater wicket.
“It felt a bit like a Shield game,” he stated.
“We’ve seen a fair few wickets like that (at the Gabba), but obviously you don’t have two sides with bowling attacks of four or five guys bowling over 150(km/h), that’s probably the difference.
“Test cricket is an endurance battle. Can the batter outlast the bowler? It’s a strategical game and obviously when you play on a wicket like this it brings the match so much close together.
“It becomes a little bit of a lottery about who gets the upper hand on a wicket like that.
“With such a good bowling attack, they sacrificed a little bit on their batting because they play the four quicks and a spinner. That played into our advantage this game because you probably didn’t need five bowlers on a wicket like that.”
Gabba curator David Sandurski was in no temper to defend his pitch when contacted by News Corp, conceding it was “not good enough”.
“The proof is within the pudding,’’ Sandurski instructed News Corp.
“The scorecards are there. You can’t deny it. It is clearly not adequate for a match of this magnitude.
“I’m clearly upset. No-one desires to have a two day Test. All the indicators within the preparation pointed in the direction of it being an inexpensive wicket. Two actually good bowling line-ups have uncovered each little bit of that wicket that they may.’’
