While some have questioned the standard of pitches used during the West Indies versus Australia Test series in which bowlers reigned supreme, the Jamaica Cricket boss Dr Donovan Bennett said nothing was wrong with the Sabina Park surface for the historic third match.

Australia swept the three-match series in commanding fashion, punctuated by the 176-run triumph in the third Test during which the hosts were bundled out for a second-innings 27. The score is the lowest score by a West Indies team and the second-worst by any side in the history of Test cricket.

Bennett had been critical of the significant variable bounce on offer when Australia won the opening two Tests in Barbados and Grenada.

The Sabina Park pitch — covered with grass for the first-ever day/night Test in Jamaica — did not appear to pose the same challenge in terms of uneven bounce.

But batsmen from both sides struggled to cope with the pace off the pitch and sideways movement of the pink Dukes ball, particularly when the lights came on in the evening. The match was over well inside three days.

It is widely believed that the pink ball used in day/night Test matches customarily swings and offers sideways movement for longer than the traditional red ball.

Number one-ranked Australia, who won the toss and batted first, mustered scores of 225 and 121. West Indies, for many years hampered by a fragile batting unit, laboured to 143 in the first innings before the debacle on the third afternoon.

Fast bowlers had a field day throughout the encounter — Australia’s left-armer Mitchell Starc took a career-best 6-9 in the second innings and Scott Boland grabbed a hat-trick.

For West Indies, Shamar Joseph, who led all bowlers in the series with 22 wickets, grabbed four in each innings, while Alzarri Joseph improved his Test-best haul to 5-27 in the second innings.

Andrew McDonald, the Australia head coach, told The New Ball on SEN Radio that the “pink-ball Dukes on that surface” made it “borderline impossible to play at certain stages” of the match.

But Bennett insisted the pitch was not the issue.

“There was nothing wrong with the wicket. The wicket was by far the best wicket we had for the series,” he told the Jamaica Observer after the match.

“There was absolutely nothing wrong with it. It played like a good cricket wicket should, the batsmen could clearly bat on it, even though they didn’t, and I still don’t understand.

“It’s the type of wicket that should’ve produced a good game. There is no way with two teams with the calibre we have here we should have a match finishing in two and a half days,” he said, noting he was “disappointed” with the manner in which West Indies crumbled in the second innings.

The teams will now turn their attention to the five-match Twenty20 International series. The opening two contests are scheduled for Sabina Park on July 20 and 22, before action swings to St Kitts for matches on July 25, 26 and 28.

— Sanjay Myers