Melbourne Renegades, Perth Scorchers. (Twitter)
The pitch was left wet as a result of overnight showers, and the ground staff had worked tirelessly to get the games started, however, after the completion of just 6.5 overs umpires decided it was too dangerous to continue citing the unpredictability of the bounce.
The Australian Big Bash League clash between the Melbourne Renegades and Perth Scorchers was called off due to terrible pitch conditions.
The pitch was left wet as a result of overnight showers in Geelong, and the ground staff had worked tirelessly to get the games started, however, after the completion of just 6.5 overs umpires decided it was too dangerous to continue.
The Scorchers had made 30 runs around the end of the seventh over before the umpires paid heed to Josh Inglish’ complaints of the unpredictability of the bounce offered by the pitch.
“That last delivery we saw behave quite uncharacteristically and in our minds we thought it behaved dangerously so that was the reason for coming off,” umpire Ben Treloar said.
“When we initially started we saw the pitch, we had a good look at it, [but] until you start playing on it sometimes these things don’t present themselves. After the first few overs we were quite hopeful it was going to be okay but then it started to go south and that last one was enough for us to consider it dangerous,” Treloar added.
Renegades skipper Ashton Turner opined that, “Start of the day we knew there were some doubts over the wicket but credit to both teams, we made a fair go of it.”
“We had enough evidence to call the game off and think the umpires made a really difficult decision, but probably the right decision,” Turner added.
Turner further said that he was glad that nobody got hurt due to the conditions.
“There were definitely question marks over the nature of the wicket but think we needed to try and make something happen,” he continued.
“Fortunately no one got hurt and the playing conditions say that no one has to get hurt to call it off which I think is common sense.”
He further added that there was discussion of maybe playing the game out from just one end, however, the pitch did not offer enough for that either.
“Think we need some flexibility with the playing conditions. I’ve heard ideas floated about whether we can play from one end, no doubt there is a way that we could get a game of cricket but we need some flexibility with the playing conditions to allow that,” Turner said.
Renegades skipper Aaron Finch said, “Josh Inglis said it felt dangerous when he was batting. It’s just bouncing ridiculously. If that’s bouncing in line with someone’s body or their head, then that could cause some real issues.”
“It’s hard to say if it’s too dangerous when nobody’s been hit but you don’t want to wait for somebody to get seriously injured,” the former Australian skipper added.
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