Batsmen, bowlers learn to deal with hard pink ball
GREATER NOIDA:The pink ball seems to have passed its first big test in India with both the bowlers and batsmen coming to terms with it in the day-night Duleep Trophy opener.
India Red’s Abhinav Mukund and Sudip Chatterjee scored centuries on Wednesday but even those who failed say it is a challenge they can surmount.
India Green opener Robin Uthappa said: “We’ve to give it time. Everything changes. There has been a lot of night cricket with T20 and one-day, so I feel once we play this format on a regular basis we will get used to it. Lot of preparation happens but we don’t quite know how to prepare yet. The more we play the more we will understand.”
The biggest issue was sighting the pink ball. With the Greater Noida stadium not having the best of outfields, wear and tear of the ball could have made it difficult to pick. But Uthappa said: “Spotting the ball is not an issue. But the ball changes colour when the light changes. Towards evening it becomes kind of orange but again in the night it becomes pink. Some players feel the ball dips on them and that is a factor.”
Uthappa was out for duck on Day 1, but said: “Once we see off the new ball, that period is simple as the ball doesn’t do much. It’s not a ball that we work with as far as shine is concerned. We tried shining the ball but not much is happening.”
Since the ball does not lose shine, reverse swing is out of the question. “We tried to get it to reverse but it didn’t,” he said.
The ball stays hard and hence fast bowlers pick wickets with short-pitched deliveries, as pacers Sandeep Sharma and Ashoke Dinda did in the first innings.
Spinners Kuldeep Yadav, Shreyas Gopal and Pragyan Ojha have obtained less turn but plenty of drift. Suresh Raina, India Green skipper, was dismissed by Yadav, a left-arm Chinaman bowler, beaten by the dip trying to play on the full.
Yadav said: “The shine of the ball is maintained so it skids more and dips on the batsmen. On Day Two, the wicket had started to turn so spinners had a better chance, but as long as the ball is hard, it will be difficult to extract turn.”