'You cannot allow bowlers...' - AB de Villiers has his say on Cape Town pitch after Rohit Sharma slams match officials over double standards

Rohit Sharma and his team scripted history in Cape Town after winning the second Test against South Africa by seven wickets. The Men in Blue ended their tour with a 1-1 Test draw, making Rohit just the second Indian captain after MS Dhoni to avoid a Test series defeat in South Africa. However, apart from this, Rohit has been in the limelight for his criticism of the Cricket Governing Body for its double standards when rating pitches.

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The match played at Newlands Cricket Ground lasted only for 1.5 days/ 107 overs. With 23 wickets falling on Day 1 and 10 wickets on the second afternoon, concerns were raised about the standard of the pitch. In fact, the Cape Town Test broke the 89-year-old record for the shortest match in cricket history. However, former South Africa skipper AB de Villiers said the pitch was quite typical. 

"It (Cape Town) was a pretty stock-standard wicket, in my opinion. I remember jumping around there on Day 1. If you can just get through the first session on Day 1, it gets easier. If you see the players playing their shots and not hanging around, they were doing well. I remember Ben Stokes scoring a double hundred there. I scored some hundreds there. You cannot allow bowlers like Vernon Philander, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kagiso Rabada to keep bowling on off-stump," De Villiers said on his YouTube channel.

It's important that we stay neutral everywhere: Rohit Sharma

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Earlier, after winning the second Test, Rohit was asked for an assessment on the Cape Town track. The veteran opener said he has no problem playing on these pitches as long as other teams keep quiet about pitches in India. He also criticised the Cricket Governing Body for maintaining double standards in rating pitches.

"I mean, we saw what happened in this match, how the pitch played and stuff like that. I honestly don't mind playing on pitches like this. As long as everyone keeps their mouth shut in India and don't talk too much about Indian pitches, honestly," Rohit said. 

"I think it's important that we stay neutral everywhere we go. Especially the match referees. You know, some of these match referees need to keep their eye on how they rate pitches. It's quite important. I still can't believe that the World Cup final pitch was rated below average. A batsman got a hundred there in the final. How can that be a poor pitch? So these are the things the Cricket Governing Body, the match referees, they need to look into and start rating pitches based on what they see, not based on the countries. I think that's quite important," he added.