Bengaluru pitch given 'below average' rating by ICC

The pitch for India's barnstorming second Test win over Sri Lanka has been rated "below average" by the International Cricket Council in a Sunday reprimand of Bengaluru's M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Sixteen wickets fell in the opening day and the hosts had the pink-ball contest firmly in hand with an emphatic 238-run victory inside three days.

But the post-match report from match referee Javagal Srinath found that the contest had been lopsided from the beginning.

"The pitch offered a lot of turn on the first day itself," Srinath said.

"Though it improved with every session, in my view, it was not an even contest between bat and ball."

Under ICC rules, venues that receive a "below average" pitch designation are issued with a demerit point.

Demerit points remain active for a rolling five-year period, and if a venue accumulates five it is suspended from hosting international cricket for a year.

Bengaluru was the second venue in as many weeks to receive the "below average" reprimand, after the Pindi Cricket Stadium in neighbouring Pakistan for the first Test against Australia.

That match at Rawalpindi ended in a tame draw with 1,187 runs scored for the loss of only 14 wickets.

The ICC has not published the match referee's report for Karachi, where Australia and Pakistan played out another draw in the second Test.

The Rawalpindi and Bengaluru pitches did avoid the harsher punishment of three and five demerit points which are awarded to those venues whose pitches are marked as poor and unfit, respectively.

The pitch for the 2017 Ashes Test at the MCG, which also ended in a tame draw, was rated poor at the time.

Of the Pindi Stadium, match referee Ranjan Madugalle said in his report: "The character of the pitch hardly changed over the course of five days. There has been no deterioration apart from the bounce getting slightly lower. In my view, this does not represent an even contest between bat and ball."

PCB chairman Ramiz Raja had earlier effectively admitted that the pitch had been prepared specifically to stymie the Australian pace attack.

He said he understood the frustration of fans but added that "just for the heck of it, we can't prepare a fast pitch or a bouncy pitch and put the game in Australia's lap ... It's important that when we play at home, we play to our strengths."