The Sheffield Shield match between Victoria and Western Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground has been rejected after an inspection on Sunday morning.
Captains Peter Handscomb and Shaun Marsh umpire Phillip Gillespie and Geoff Joshua and match referee Bob Parry consulted with Melbourne Cricket Ground(MCG) operations and the ground staff had scheduled earlier to start of play on day two. “A decision had taken after the discussion that no more play would be possible in the match,” Cricket Australia said in a press release.
On the opening day of the game, on Sunday, a large number of deliveries climbed awkwardly during day’s play and hit WA’s batsmen. The player was eventually suspended within two deliveries remaining in the 40th over after an Andrew Fekete delivery struck Marcus Stoinis on the ribs, with Western Australia at 89 for 3. However, Cricket Australia(CA) has assured a different strip is being prepared for the upcoming Day Test match between Australia and New Zealand.
Cricket Australia(CA) had stated that if there is no new date cannot be found to reschedule the domestic match, both Victoria and WA will be awarded three points each for this game.
in the press release note
“I can’t see us getting back on,” Marsh said.“We saw guys getting hit on the head and it was disappointing. When Marcus got hit on that last occasion it was pretty realistic that the pitch was unplayable.
“I probably got hit four or five times, and we saw that after the lunch when the wicket got a little bit harder and there were a lot of pits out there it became unplayable.”Western Australia’s captain was dismissed for 14 runs.
He then spoke briefly on the ABC radio but just minutes later he was pulled from WA’s press conference to undergo a concussion test.
Instead Warriors coach Adam Voges stepped in and said that he will not put his batsmen back out in unsafe conditions.
“Were We saw many deliveries in misbehave,” Voges said.
“We’ve got a couple of guys who have had to do concussion tests today and a couple of sore fingers and some sore ribs as well. “I think they’re OK, but my experience with a concussion is you might not know until tomorrow anyway”
In a statement, Cricket Australia says it will work to ensure the best possible wicket for the Boxing Day Test.
The MCG pitch will be inspected before Sunday’s scheduled 10 am start when a decision on whether to play on will be made.
Should play continue there was no clarity on whether the scores would reset or if WA’s 3-89 would stand. It is understood that the points would be shared should the match be abandoned.
