18 Aug 2009

Oval pitch looks a belter

6:26 am on 18 August 2009

The pitch for this week's Ashes decider looks a belter before the start of the match at The Oval on Thursday night.

Staff at the south London venue allowed media to view the much-talked about surface on Monday before the one-off battle for the urn.

The ground's operations director Clive Stephens says the virgin strip will be a typical Oval international wicket with a bit of bounce and pace and fair competition between bat and ball, which will have a bit of movement in it by days four and five.

The Oval has become renowned for producing flat pitches and only Shane Warne has dominated a Test at the ground in the past decade of all the spinners to ply their trade there.