ICC rates Eden Gardens pitch for Kolkata Test as ‘satisfactory’:Apex body doesn’t impose fine despite IND-SA match ending within three days

The pitch of the Test match played between India and South Africa in November 2025 at Eden Gardens in Kolkata has been given a ‘satisfactory’ rating by ICC Match Referee Richie Richardson. With this rating, Eden Gardens will not face any fine or action. The match ended in 3 days This Test match concluded in just three days. South Africa had defeated India by 30 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the series. After this, South Africa also won the second Test played in Guwahati and clinched the series 2-0. Why was there a controversy over the pitch? During and after the Kolkata Test, there was a lot of debate about the pitch. India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir had said after the match that it was the same pitch the team had demanded, and he had also praised curator Sujan Mukherjee.
However, before the second Test, the team’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak refuted this statement. He said that Gambhir had said this to protect the curator and the team did not expect a pitch with uneven bounce. What was the pitch like for the Kolkata Test? On the Eden Gardens pitch, the ball’s bounce appeared uneven from the very first over. As the match progressed, the pitch also started offering a sharp turn.
This pitch assisted both fast bowlers and spinners. Off-spinner Simon Harmer and left-arm fast bowler Marco Jansen played a crucial role in South Africa’s victory. For India, Jasprit Bumrah took five wickets on the first day. No team could score 200 runs The batting conditions in the match were so difficult that no team could reach 200 runs in a single innings. Chasing a target of 124 runs in the fourth innings, the Indian team was all out for 93 runs. ICC’s pitch rating system has four levels Very Good, Satisfactory, Unsatisfactory, and the lowest level, Unfit.
On an unsatisfactory rating, the ground gets 1 demerit point, while on an unfit rating, a ban on international matches can also be imposed, along with 2 demerit points. A 12-month ban is possible if 6 demerit points are received in five years. MCG pitch received an unsatisfactory rating Recently, during the Ashes series, the pitch at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) was given an ‘unsatisfactory’ rating after the Boxing Day Test. That match also ended in just two days, and MCG received one demerit point.