Riverside ground chester-le-street pitch report: ENG vs SA 1st ODI 2022 Durham pitch report

Riverside ground chester-le-street pitch report: First of the three-match ODI series between England and South Africa to take place tomorrow.

After suffering home series defeats in both the White-ball format against India just a couple of days ago, England would now take on the South African challenge right away in the all format series which would begin with the first ODI at the Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street today.

The match is of extra significance, as England’s 2019 World Cup final hero and present Test captain Ben Stokes, just the previous evening came out with a shocking decision to retire from the ODI format with today’s match at his home ground in Durham set to be his 105th and last 50-Over international game.

As for South Africa, who will be led by left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj, the rainbow nation would play an ODI after almost four months, having previously lost to Bangladesh 1-2 in the three match ODI series in March.

While England have won eight out of their last nine ODIs at the Riverside ground, South Africa had won the lone ODI they played here against Sri Lanka by 9 wickets, during the 2019 ICC World Cup.

Riverside ground chester-le-street pitch report

The average first innings score in the last five ODIs at the Le-Chester-Street is 268, making it a decent surface to bat on.

Traditionally, however, the pitch at this venue in Durham has been a good hunting ground for the fast bowlers, with significant amount of lateral movement in store and carry on offer available on the track.

All in all, the Riverside ground pitch is expected to be a fairly balanced one today, with advantages for both batters and the bowlers at different points in the match. Batters are likely to score big after negating the pace threat early on.