Gilchrist and Dyson criticise drop-in pitch

Australia's stand-in captain, Adam Gilchrist, and Sri Lanka's Australian coach, John Dyson, were heavily critical of the drop-in pitch at the Marrara Oval, after the Darwin Test finished inside three days for the second year running.

"I don't think the wicket was quite up to Test standards," said Gilchrist, who led Australia in the absence of Ricky Ponting. "It is pretty obvious when a Test finishes like this. With the quality of batsmen around in both teams it is not quite there. With the type of pitch, the result becomes a lottery. If you get a good hour in a one-day match it changes the game, but in Test cricket it doesn't. So the better team generally wins.

"I think we executed better with our bats than they did," added Gilchrist. "Both teams bowled really well in the right areas. We probably deserved to take the match in the end because we were able to play ourselves a little bit better when it was up for grabs."

Gilchrist added that if Darwin were to maintain its Test status, the authorities would have to make improvements to the pitch. "It was not so much the seam and swing, it's just the variable bounce," he said. "All you ask for in a good cricket pitch is consistency in bounce. It is difficult with drop-in wickets to know what you have to do. But they've had drop-in wickets now for many years at the MCG and they've got it right."

"This is only the second time up here, so it's early stages," he continued. "But I hope the authorities will take it up and talk about how this pitch wasn't up to standard. You've got to make improvements if you are going to make Test cricket attractive here. Darwin has the facilities and it is up to Test standard. But the most important ingredient is a good cricket pitch."

Dyson also added his opinions to the debate. "When Australia gets bowled out twice for 200 that should tell you something about the wicket. When a Test match finishes in under three days it also tells you something about the wicket. There were seven class batsmen in either team and they got bowled out twice. The highest score in the game was 207. In a good game of Test cricket you are expected to go into the fifth day. You can draw up your own conclusions from that."

"It's not very often that Australia gets bowled out twice for 200 in a Test," admitted Dyson. "I don't think either team batted particularly well in either innings, because it is a difficult wicket to bat on. It seamed a heck of a lot. The scores indicate that. The wicket was a seaming wicket and a lot of the players were good enough to nick the seaming ball."

"Australia knew the wicket was favourable for their type of bowling and they bowled exactly the way they should," added Dyson. "Look at our seamers. Apart from Vaasy [ChamindaVaas] they are not in the same class. But we still knocked over the world champions twice for 200."

Sri Lanka's captain, Marvan Atapattu, added that the run-out of Kumar Sangakkara was a major turning point of the final day. "Had it not happened it would have been better. Sanga is batting well at the moment. I think losing him by way of a run-out was a crime at that time. Normally Sanath runs very well. It was one of those days where he didn't judge his runs 100 percent."