Pink ball ‘best under lights for bowlers’
Adam Milne and Central Districts may have only had a limited time playing with a pink ball, but it was enough to know it’s best to be bowling at night.
New Zealand fast bowler Milne made his return from injury for CD in their Plunket Shield game against Northern Districts at Hamilton last week, in a round of domestic games that trialled pink cricket balls in day-night matches.
Seth Rance was the destroyer for CD in the rain-affected match, taking six wickets, but Milne still bowled 14 overs, taking 0-30 in what was a new experience using a pink ball.
‘‘There’s a few different dynamics, where it swung around a little bit early on with the new ball, not heaps,’’ Milne said. ‘‘Then throughout the day it was pretty placid, not swinging, the wicket was pretty flat.
‘‘Our declaration was as the lights were coming on and we found Seth Rance swung it miles under the lights.’’
CD had a couple of days training with the pink ball before the game to get used to the slight differences.
In the game at Seddon Park, CD batted first and scored 272-9 before they declared and stuck ND in to bat under lights and ND were struggling.
Rance was wreaking havoc and reduced ND to 28-4 by stumps that night, then there was only another 41 overs during the next three days because of rain and ND were 119-9 by the time the game as called off.
Milne said the pink ball was similar in the way it comes on compared with a white ball in a day-night one-day game, but the pink ball skids on a bit off the pitch.
‘‘The swing of the pink ball is more exaggerated.’’
The team won’t get another chance in the next round of the Plunket Shield because the pinkball game was a one off and they are back to using a red ball.
It was Milne’s first top-level game in about 11 months because of elbow surgery and a side strain.
He played a few club games for Marist in Palmerston North this season, but aside from that the last time he he played was at the Indian Premier League in April.
‘‘It wasn’t the worst result in terms of being able to get some overs in and not completely blow out the body. It was good to get back out and play.’’
He will head to Napier on Monday to re-join the CD team for their Plunket Shield match against Wellington, which starts on Tuesday.
CD will have batsman Jesse Ryder available now he’s back from playing in Hong Kong.