Jury on pink ball still out, says Wood
MARK Wood says the jury is still out on the pink ball, despite him taking 5-54 with it for Durham.
All 18 First-Class counties are playing day-night County Championship cricket this week, trying the different coloured ball under floodlights.
It is partly a dry run for England’s Tests against West Indies in August and Australia in December, both of which Wood will hope to play in.
If he does, the fast bowler should try to get the new ball because he says it is far more dangerous before it gets old.
“I think it was in the bowler’s favour when it was new and, when it got older, it became a lot more batterfriendly,” said Wood, who helped bowl Worcestershire out for 367 on a rain-hit second day.
“It got really soft, it sounded difficult to hit off the bat and you had to really wait for a bad ball.
“It reminded me a little bit of the condition it gets into on the subcontinent, really soft and a bit flakey. When it’s new it’s really hard and the seam is quite big so it allows it to move a little bit.
“Through the middle overs we were trying to wet one side and get some lateral movement but we couldn’t really get anything going. Moeen Ali was saying he was struggling to time it because it was so soft off the pitch it wasn’t coming off the bat.
“We didn’t try to get it to reverse (swing) because the ground was too lush but, on dusty wickets, that might be an option. Batting in the nets against an older ball, that has reversed.
“Their bowlers made good use of the new ball so we knew it was tough and, when they came out, they tried to counter-attack.
“You could argue it worked to an extent because it knocked the shine off the ball and made it easier for Mo (who made 58) and (Brett) D’Oliveira (122) to play their shots. They were hard to dislodge.
“For me, the jury’s still out a little bit. It seems too much of a difference between when it’s new and favourable to when it goes soft. I don’t now whether it’s different in different conditions.”
On day one, many fans complained they were unable to see the pink ball. It was hard to say how much that was a factor in yesterday’s much smaller crowd, and how much was down to miserable weather which ended the day’s play as soon as Worcestershire’s innings finished at 5.30pm.
Having batted, bowled and fielded, Wood said it was not an issue for him.
“It was hard (to see) late last night but I think that was more because of the light than the ball,” he said. “When you were batting and fielding I don’t think it was too bad.
“I seemed to notice it when they whacked it at me, let’s put it that way!”
Worcestershire’s batsmen were much more aggressive than Durham’s, promoting Joe Leach and John Hastings to smash the shine off the new ball. It paid off, and they lead by 170 runs after each side have batted.