One change too many leaves coaches fuming

THE BALL was changed thrice during the Mumbai vs Tamil Nadu match, sparking concerns among the teams. Tamil Nadu was disadvantaged this time,asoneoftheballchangeshelped Mumbai seamers get reverse swing.

Thebcciusessgtestballforranji Trophygameandtherehasbeenquite a few instances of the ball losing its shape too early. As a result, umpires have had to change the ball and on Sunday, there was a time when ball change saw seamers getting reverse swing. “Thequalityofballshascontinued to be an issue in Ranji Trophy. Not much has changed since the last season. A change in ball has a lot of repercussions on the batting and bowlingsides’strategiesandattimes, ateammightenduplosingitsgripon the match due to a sudden change in ball. This has to be taken seriously,” Mumbai Ranji Trophy team coach Chandrakant Pandit said.

The reverse swing helped Mumbai bowlers to get wickets in quicksuccessiononapitchwhichhad laid a red carpet for batters. The umpireschangedtheballonceinthefirst session and twice in second session. Dinesh Karthik was given out leg beforeaftershardulthakurmanagedto reverse it back. Baba Indrajith too lost his wicket to reverse swing from Abhishek Nayar and Tamil Nadu slid from 171 for 2 to 202 for 5.

Tamil Nadu bowling coach Laximpathy Balaji too expressed his concern.hesaid,“definitely,youdon’t liketochangetoomanyballs,because it disrupts batting and bowling becauseyouaregoinginonemotionand suddenlytheballischangingandsuddenly the condition of the ball is changing. The ball will swing, the ball will not swing. So you need to keep adapting. It’s unusual (this season) that in the first session the ball is changed 3-4 times. It’s up to the match officials to do something.”

DEVENDRAPANDEY