Have you ever wanted to know a little bit more about cricket pitches? If you have, you are on the perfect track. In this article, we will discuss everything about cricket pitches.
A pitch is one of the most necessary things in the game of Cricket. It is a strip between the two wickets. The result of a cricket match varies on the character of the pitch. Test matches are more likely to experience this. That is because a pitch can behave differently in five days. That affects the result of a game.
Some pitches give advantages to a bowler, whereas there are some pitches from where a batter can play comfortably. As a result, the team management and captain select the playing XI keeping that in mind. Sometimes, we see the team management select a squad with seven batters. At the same time, a team can have six bowlers. It is all because of the behaviour of a cricket pitch.
Cricket Pitch Measurement
One can not make a cricket pitch by one’s choice. The pitch must meet some specific requirements to be considered a standard cricket ground. The length of a cricket pitch must be 22 yards. But in modern times, people usually use meters instead of yards as the unit. A standard cricket pitch is 20.12 meters which is equal to 66.01 feet. However, the width of a pitch should not be less than 10 feet.
Every pitch has a designated area called the popping crease, where a bowler bowls. A ball will be illegal or no ball if the bowler crosses the popping crease during the delivery.
Types of Cricket Pitches
Several types of pitches do exist in the game of cricket. But six types are very common around the world. They are:
- Green Pitches: A pitch that contains mane grasses is considered a green pitch. Because of the grasses, the crease looks green. Usually, the ground authorities make a green pitch for Test cricket. The behaviour of this kind of pitch doesn’t change quickly and the fast bowlers can get advantages as they generate a lot of pace.
- Dry Pitches: Spinners face difficulties bowling on a dry pitch as the ball doesn’t swing on it. The crease doesn’t have moisture and can be cracked after a few days. But a fast bowler can bounce the ball on a dry pitch. Batters also can bat comfortably as the ball doesn’t make a tremendous swing.
- Flat Pitches: A flat pitch doesn’t contain grass. The roller rolls it many times to make it hard. As a result, the chances of cracking are very few for a flat pitch. The hard pitches are batting-friendly as the bowl doesn’t make turns.
- Wet Pitches: The pitches which have much moisture are called wet pitches. The pitch gives advantages to the spinners as they can make a swing on the ball. Generally, the scores are not going to be big as the batter can’t bat comfortably because of swing.
- Dusty Pitches: The spinners can get more advantages from a dusty pitch. The crease contains many bags of dust that help the ball make the swing. However, it is also a dry crease but soft. Because of this, pacers can’t bowl a bouncer on it. The batter who can face the spin ball confidently can score big runs.
- Dead Pitch: this is famous for being batting-friendly. The dead pitch has no moisture and grass. That is why a bowler gets nothing from it. Generally, the ground authorities make a dead pitch in the short format of cricket, such as ODIs and T20s.
A cricket stadium holds many domestic matches as well as international matches throughout the year. Every team needs several pitches to practice their batting and bowling. But a pitch can damage and crack very quickly if many games are played on it. That is why the ground authorities make several pitches.
Standard stadiums have four or more pitches to prevent overstretching one. One crease is designated for official matches, while the teams can use the remaining three for practice.
However, a good cricket pitch does not behave devilishly for the players. The flat and dry pitches are considered good pitches in cricket and give help to the pacers. In India, most of the pitches are wet due to the weather of the Asian subcontinent but in recent times the variety of pitches has improved to assist cricketers when they play outside India.