"Two out of 100 is my rating for the pitch. It's a s**t pitch," says Michael Holding
One of the major talking points from the third and final Test between South Africa and India is the 22-yard strip on which the match is being played. The pitch has been receiving criticism from all quarters as it has provided excessive movement and adding to that, the bounce the bowlers have generated from the surface has been very uneven.
This has made life difficult for the batsmen and surviving every ball is like dodging a bullet from a rifle. The commentators have been very critical of the surface and have already rated this surface as poor. Former West Indian pacer and one of the lead commentators for the ongoing series, Michael Holding, rated the pitch 2/100 and termed it a s**t pitch.
"This pitch would get a 2 out of me, and not out of 10 our of a 100 Two out of 100 is my rating for the pitch. It's a s**t pitch. You can interpret that. They should have called it off when Vijay got hit. This is not a cricket pitch, this is dangerous. Call it off, forget it. You can't play cricket on that. I have no idea what has gone wrong but I know it's not a good cricket pitch. The last time I saw something like this, the match was abandoned - in Jamaica 1998, and it didn't even last this long," Holding said.
Speaking about the pitch, Pollock said: "If you've got deliveries behaving like this on day two of a Test match it can't be judged a good surface."
Also read: What constitutes a "dangerous" pitch?
According to reports in Cricinfo, "there was a meeting with match officials, captains and the GCB officials and the pitch has been decided as fine."