# How Pitch Conditions Change a Cricket Match Source: https://cricketin.org/guides/how-pitch-conditions-work [By Anjali Deshmukh](/authors/cricket-analyst), Cricket Analyst. [Reviewed by Rajeev Sathe](/authors/editor-in-chief), Editor-in-Chief. Updated 1 Sep 2026. Editorial policy: https://cricketin.org/editorial-policy 18+ Betting money on cricket carries a direct risk of financial loss, and it can become an addiction. Real-money online gaming is banned across India under the PROG Act 2025, which came into force on 1 May 2026. If betting is already costing you money you need, or sleep, or people close to you, the free Tele-MANAS helpline is **14416**, and it runs in 20 languages. Our [page on help for gambling harm](/guides/help-for-gambling-harm-india) lists what else exists. --- What the Laws say about a cricket pitch, how surfaces wear across five days, why dew decides evening matches, ICC pitch ratings and selection effects. A cricket pitch is a strip 22 yards long and 10 feet wide. Its grass cover, dryness and wear decide whether the ball seams, turns or sits up to be hit. This page covers the main surface types. It shows how a strip changes over five days, and why dew tilts evening matches. It also covers the way the ICC rates pitches, and how all of it feeds team picks. ## What a pitch actually is The pitch is the strip in the middle. What that strip does to the ball drives the whole match. [Law 6 of the MCC Laws](https://www.lords.org/mcc/the-laws/the-pitch) pins down the size. It is a box 22 yards long, or 20.12 metres. It is 10 feet wide, or 3.05 metres. The [general reference on cricket pitches](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_pitch) gives the same sizes. The 22-yard length has not changed in the modern game. Who looks after it is also fixed. Before the match, the ground authority gets the pitch ready. During the match, the umpires control its use and its upkeep. The umpires alone judge whether it is fit to play on. A pitch cannot be swapped mid-match on a whim. It changes only if the umpires rule that play on it is dangerous or unfair. Both captains must agree as well. ## The main types of surface Groundstaff can make very different strips from the same square. Three broad types cover most cricket. A grassy, hard pitch holds damp and keeps its bounce. The ball moves off the seam. Fast bowlers get carry. Green tops of this kind are linked with England, New Zealand and South Africa. A dry, bare pitch has little grass and loose top soil. The ball grips and turns. It can also stop in the surface. Much home cricket in India is played on strips like this. A flat, hard pitch with even bounce and no grass suits batting. The ball comes at a height the batter can trust. That is what a batter wants most. These are trends, not rules. No document defines a green pitch. No official body signs one off. **Table 1. Pitch type, who it helps, and how an innings tends to run** | Pitch type | Who it tends to help | Typical innings pattern | |---|---|---| | Green and grassy | Seam and swing bowlers | Early wickets, then easier once the shine is gone | | Dry and bare | Spin bowlers | Steady start, then a collapse as the surface grips | | Flat and hard | Batters | High totals and few wickets on any day | | Cracked and worn | Whoever bowls into the cracks | Uneven bounce; scoring becomes risky | ## How a pitch changes across five days In a Test the pitch is a player in the story. Day five is not the same surface as day one. Day one is often the freshest. Damp is still in the surface. So seam bowlers get help early, and then batting gets easier. By day three the surface is drier. Bowlers' footmarks have shown up. Those rough patches are where a spinner aims. By day four and five, cracks widen and the surface breaks up. Bounce turns uneven. Batting last is often the hardest job in the match. Some upkeep is allowed, but not much. Under [Law 9](https://www.lords.org/mcc/the-laws/preparation-and-maintenance-of-the-playing-area), the batting captain may ask for up to seven minutes of rolling. That right holds before each innings other than the first, and before each new day's play. Loose bits are swept off before play, between innings and at meal breaks. That is why the toss counts for more on some pitches than others. A captain is picking which version of the strip to bat on. The [ICC Test playing conditions](https://images.icc-cricket.com/image/upload/prd/lm8owaz03i86m1eneb7m.pdf) also matter here. Overs missed on one day are not made up later. So a slow day changes how much wear the surface gets. ## The ball wears too Pitch and ball wear together. You cannot read one without the other. A new ball is hard and shiny. [Law 4](https://www.lords.org/mcc/the-laws/the-ball) sets a men's ball at 155.9 to 163 grams. It must measure 22.4 to 22.9 centimetres round. In a longer match the fielding captain can call for a new ball. That right starts once 80 full overs have been bowled with the old one. On a rough, dry surface the old ball wears faster. That helps reverse swing. In an ODI the ball supply changed in 2025. Under the [ICC ODI conditions](https://images.icc-cricket.com/image/upload/prd/d25dbgishkx0kijb4jeu.pdf) two balls swap over only up to over 34. One is then picked for the rest of the innings. That single ball gets more wear from the square. That is the whole point. The rules of each format are on our [50-over guide](/guides/odi-rules-explained) and our [Test guide](/guides/test-cricket-explained). ## Dew, and why evening matches are different In much of India a day-night match brings dew after sunset. Dew is one of the biggest single forces in a limited-overs game. Dew makes the ball wet and heavy. Grip goes. Spinners then struggle to turn it, and fast bowlers lose their hold on the seam. Dew also flattens the outfield grass. The ball then skids to the rope. Fielding gets harder, and dropped catches rise. So the side chasing under lights often has an easier time. Captains say openly that they want to bowl first at dew-prone grounds. Groundstaff fight it with sprays. They also mop the outfield between overs. No playing condition we read gives dew any status at all. No rule makes up for it. That gap has no DLS-style fix. The game does handle one kind of break, though. Our [DLS explainer](/guides/dls-method-explained) shows how it deals with rain. ## How the ICC grades a pitch Pitches get an official grade. This is not just talk in the box. The [ICC's pitch and outfield ratings process](https://www.icc-cricket.com/about/cricket/rules-and-regulations/pitch-ratings) puts the job with the match referee. He rates both pitch and outfield after every Test, ODI and T20 international. The rating goes to the host member board. A rating of "Unsatisfactory" or "Unfit" counts as below standard. The board and the ground must then explain themselves. The ICC may also punish the ground. The ICC page prints no cut-offs and no penalty figures. [ESPNcricinfo's review of the system](https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/is-the-icc-s-pitch-rating-system-fit-for-purpose-1365110) fills in the gaps. It says the system began in 2006 and was updated in January 2018. It sets out six ratings, from very good down to unfit, with demerit points attached. The reported scale is one point for a below-average pitch. A poor one draws three points, and an unfit one draws five. Five points in a rolling five-year window is reported to bar a ground for 12 months. Ten points is reported to bar it for two years. We still need the current demerit-point cut-offs and ban lengths, from an ICC rule book. Our figures come from a 2018 news report, not from the ICC page. That page gives no numbers. ## How conditions change team selection Selectors read the pitch before they read the other side. This is where the strip turns into tactics. On a dry, turning surface a side may play two or even three spinners. India has often picked that way at home grounds. On a green, seaming surface the extra spinner turns into an extra seamer. An all-rounder who can bat gets the nod over a pure bowler. The batting order shifts too. A side that looks for turn may push up a player who sweeps well. A side that looks for bounce may want an opener with a tight, sound method. Bowling plans change inside a match. Say a captain wins the toss on a grassy strip. He will bowl his fastest men in a long first spell, while the damp lasts. None of this is a guess about one stadium. We do not say how any named ground plays. We have no current source that grades single grounds. ## What a pitch report cannot tell you A pitch report is an informed guess. It is not data. The same strip can act in new ways in new weather. Cloud cover changes swing more than the surface does. No one prints the watering and rolling calls made on match morning. The exact damp in the soil stays private too. So treat pitch talk as one clue among many. Our [formats guide](/guides/cricket-formats-explained) sets out what really changes between formats. That is a firmer place to start. Two rule sets drive most of these effects. Our [T20 rule book](/guides/t20-rules-explained) and our [DRS guide](/guides/how-drs-works) cover the parts fans get wrong most. ## How we checked this page Pitch talk is where cricket writing makes things up most. So we stuck to what the documents say. The sizes and upkeep rules come from the MCC Laws. The ratings process comes from the ICC page. The demerit numbers come from a news report, and we have flagged them as such. Where no rule exists, we said so. Dew is the clearest case. Our [verification method](/how-we-test) explains the standard. Fixes are logged on our [corrections page](/corrections). Every explainer sits on the [guides hub](/guides). ## Questions people ask ### How long and wide is a cricket pitch? It is 22 yards long, or 20.12 metres. It is 10 feet wide, or 3.05 metres. The sizes are set in [Law 6 of the MCC Laws](https://www.lords.org/mcc/the-laws/the-pitch). ### Can the pitch be rolled during a match? Yes, within limits. [Law 9](https://www.lords.org/mcc/the-laws/preparation-and-maintenance-of-the-playing-area) allows up to seven minutes of rolling if the batting captain asks. He may ask before each innings other than the first, and before each new day's play. ### Why does dew favour the chasing team? A wet ball is hard to grip. Spin and seam movement drop away. The ball also skids off a damp outfield. No playing condition makes up for it. So captains just try to bowl first at dew-prone grounds. ### Who decides whether a pitch is fit to play on? The umpires, and only the umpires. The ground staff get the pitch ready before the match. Once play starts, the umpires control its use and judge if it is fit. ### Does the ICC punish bad pitches? It can. The [ICC ratings process](https://www.icc-cricket.com/about/cricket/rules-and-regulations/pitch-ratings) has the match referee grade the pitch after every international. A grade below standard calls for an answer from the board, and can bring a penalty. The ICC page prints no cut-offs. ## More from the guides - [How to Spot a Fake Cricket App](/guides/how-to-spot-a-fake-cricket-app) - [KYC for Online Gaming in India](/guides/kyc-in-online-gaming-india) - [ODI Cricket Rules Explained](/guides/odi-rules-explained) - [Frozen Payments in Online Gaming](/guides/payment-freeze-and-chargebacks) - [Self-Exclusion and Deposit Limits in India 2026](/guides/self-exclusion-and-limits) - [Signs of Gambling Addiction](/guides/signs-of-gambling-addiction) - [T20 Cricket Rules Explained](/guides/t20-rules-explained) - [Test Cricket Rules Explained](/guides/test-cricket-explained) - [UPI and Online Gaming Payments in India](/guides/upi-and-online-gaming-payments) - [PROG Act 2025 Explained](/legal/prog-act-2025-explained) - [State Gambling Laws in India](/legal/state-by-state) - [Caribbean Premier League 2026 — live schedule and table](/leagues/cpl)