Ben Stokes celebrates his five-wicket haul.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Bengaluru: Despite ending on the right side of a Test match result for the first time in 15 years in Australia, England skipper Ben Stokes took potshots at the overwhelmingly bowler-friendly Melbourne pitch on which 20 wickets fell on Day 1 and 16 on Day 2. "I'm pretty sure if that was somewhere else in the world, there’d be hell on."
Asked specifically if he was talking about spin-friendly pitches in Asia, Stokes replied rather tongue-in-cheek, "Your words, not mine."
Stokes wasn't alone in criticising the pitch. His former team-mate Kevin Pietersen even mentioned India, saying how the country would have been "hammered" for rolling out a spin-friendly pitch.
Former India cricketer Dinesh Karthik said, "Can’t believe two of the four Ashes Tests could end in two days. For all the hype, four Ashes Tests have happened in just 13 days.”