 Collingwood bowled 16 overs without reward |
Former England captain Graham Gooch believes Test cricket is suffering as a result of "lifeless" pitches. The fourth Test between West Indies and England plundered 1,349 runs in the first innings and the first Sri Lanka v Pakistan Test saw three double tons. "It's a bit of a worry worldwide," Gooch told BBC Radio 5 Live. "Pitches are quite benign, very flat and lifeless. What is important is for the pitch to be true on the first two to three days and then deteriorate." He added: "You want it to spin quite a bit or go uneven in bounce - become a bit untrustworthy. That creates a chance of a result.  | 606: DEBATE |
"What you see now is pitches becoming flatter, truer and deader as the match goes on." Meanwhile, England batsman Paul Collingwood revealed his team's frustrations regarding the pitch in Barbados. West Indies' Ramnaresh Sarwan scored a Test best of 291, Denesh Ramdin hit 166, while England's Andrew Strauss and Ravi Bopara also scored centuries, during the first four days of the five-day match. "It's not easy when you have a wicket like that, it's very hard to stem the flow of runs," said Collingwood. "We were looking for swing here, but unfortunately we haven't got the ball to reverse or swinging conventionally for too long. "We stuck to our plans and unfortunately we didn't get as many wickets as we wanted to." In the first Test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Younus Khan scored a triple century while Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera both grabbed double centuries on a forgiving Karachi pitch for the batsmen. The match was drawn.
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