The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) has admitted it must “act quickly” to improve pitches at Lord’s with the surface for the first Test between England and New Zealand having been rated “unsatisfactory” by the International Cricket Council (ICC).England completed an emphatic 115-run victory shortly before lunch on day four on Sunday, with rain having interrupted all three previous days. It was a convincing performance from Ben Stokes’ team in their first outing since the winter’s humiliating Ashes defeat to Australia, but the surface was the main talking point.Forty wickets fell in just 166 overs, with variable bounce and extravagant seam movement combining to produce torrid conditions for batting.Just two players recorded fifties — England’s Harry Brook and Emilio Gay — and four different bowlers took five wickets or more in an innings, the first time that has happened in a Lord’s Test. As a result of the ICC’s report on the playing surface, Lord’s has received one demerit point under the ICC Pitch and Outfield Monitoring Process.“There was plenty of excessive seam movement throughout the Test and the ball also kept extremely low on several occasions,” said match referee Andy Pycroft. “The bounce was variable throughout as 16 wickets fell on the first day and 17 on the second. There was simply an over-balance in favour of ball against bat caused by the pitch.”Demerit points remain active for a rolling five-year period, and any venue which accumulates six is suspended from hosting international cricket for 12 months. A venue that reaches 12 points cannot stage cricket at the highest level for 24 months. Lord’s had not previously accumulated any demerit points; the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have 14 days to appeal against the ICC’s sanction.England captain Stokes stated post-match that pitches like the one produced at Lord’s were damaging to Test cricket.