{"id":629341,"date":"2026-06-09T14:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T14:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/629341\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T14:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T14:40:10","slug":"england-v-new-zealand-lords-pitch-rated-unsatisfactory-by-icc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/629341\/","title":{"rendered":"England v New Zealand: Lord’s pitch rated “unsatisfactory” by ICC"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), owners of Lord’s, admitted the surface had fallen short of expectations in a statement after the Test, while England captain Ben Stokes said such surfaces are not helpful for the future of the game’s longest format.<\/p>\n

The Test lasted 166 overs, making it the second-shortest to produce a positive result in the 150 matches held at Lord’s. It was the third-shortest at any ground when all 40 wickets have fallen.<\/p>\n

Though Lord’s did not have any previous demerit points on its record, the punishment continues a trend of underwhelming surfaces at the venue.<\/p>\n

The pitches used for the men’s Tests against Ireland in 2019, New Zealand in 2021 and Australia in 2023, plus a women’s one-day international against India in 2022, were all rated “average” under the ICC’s previous system.<\/p>\n

The pitch used for an ODI against Australia in 2024 and last year’s Test against India also only got a “satisfactory” rating.<\/p>\n

Lord’s copied a ‘steaming’ technique used on the courts at the All England Lawn Tennis Club for Wimbledon during the winter, in an attempt to improve the situation. <\/p>\n

MCC chairman Mark Nicholas revealed on Monday, external<\/a> Lord’s hopes to be able to use drop-in pitches – surfaces grown on the Nursery Ground before being moved into the main square – by 2028.<\/p>\n

Lord’s will host its first women’s Test when England and India meet in July, while England men also return in August for the second Test against Pakistan.<\/p>\n

In between, the venue will host white-ball internationals and matches in The Hundred.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), owners of Lord’s, admitted the surface had fallen short of expectations in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-629341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}