Adelaide pitch breaks with tradition

Adelaide Oval's pitch will break with tradition for the inaugural day-night Test match.

Instead of the usual batsman's paradise, the oval's head curator Damian Hough is offering hope to fast bowlers.

Hough is deliberately leaving more grass on the pitch for the third Commonwealth Bank Test between Australia and New Zealand starting Friday.

His reasons are two-fold: one, to protect the experimental pink balls from rapidly deteriorating and, two, to provide a more even contest between bat and ball.

"Leaving a bit of grass on it, we're hoping it will assist the quicks, and the ball will come onto the bat nicely," Hough said.

"But having a bit of a coarse, thatchy grass should hopefully, going on the two games we have had so far and the pink ball (Sheffield) Shield matches, it should be able to bite into that grass and get some spin."

Hough's preparations for the historic Test were made more difficult by the oval hosting an AC/DC concert on Saturday night.

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The Test pitch was only dropped into place overnight Sunday, and groundstaff have relaid 800 square metres of turf at the northern end where the AC/DC stage was located.

"Most of the ground, you can't tell that there was a concert on it," he said.

Hough was trying to replicate pitch conditions experienced in the recent day-night Shield match in Adelaide between South Australia and NSW.

"The Shield pitch seemed to have a bit in for the quicks, spin still played a factor, and you were able to score, there was still a few centuries made," he said.

"Talking to the players and captains and umpires, we felt that it was just a good balance between bat and ball."