Test cricket in Pink of Health

Test cricket in Pink of Health: The latest experiment in Test cricket, the first ever day-night Test happened this past week and carried all the flavours expected. Even before the start of the game, a lot of people criticized it sighting that it will be sacrilegious for Test cricket. The result however, of this “experiment” is there to be seen. It had provided the fans with a brilliant contest between bat and ball. It was easily the most interesting Test match of the series as the first two games were run-fests.

Traditionally, the morning sessions were the most important ones for pace bowlers to leave a mark on the game, this game, however, most wickets fell in the last session. A total of 14 wickets had fallen in the last session over the three days, mainly attributed to the assistance bowlers got under lights and the swinging ball put the batsmen on the backfoot.

There were a lot of questions whether the pink ball would be visible at night and fortunately, there weren’t any instances where batsmen had trouble sighting the ball under lights. It most certainly made for a pleasurable sight as a spectator. It is easy to sight under lights, even for fielders who are trying to take skiers. I mean Australian and New Zealand players are known for their fielding. It will be interesting how it pans out when Pakistan are fielding under lights with the pink papaya as Jimmy Neesham calls it.

There was no additional wear and tear observed on the ball as compared to the red cherry and it remained true to its shape for most part of the game. And the fact that neither of sides lasted for more than 72 overs, the effect of the second new ball under lights is still to be seen.

People had spoken about the pink ball becoming softer during the play vis-à-vis the red ball, that however didn’t affect its bounce. There wasn’t any unevenness in the bounce due to the ball becoming softer.

The Adelaide wicket on the 3^rd day assisted the spinners to some extent. Nathan Lyon particularly was getting a lot of turn and bounce on the 3^rd afternoon, this is a heartening sign as the ball had its fair share of both swing and spin during the latter half of the NZ innings. Mark Craig on the other end, wasn’t able to get the ball talking and it was his spell that eased the pressure on the Australian batsmen in a tight chase.

Let us hope that people would remember this game for a Llong time for the right reasons, leaving behind the Nathan Lyon controversy. Martin Guptill, Tom Latham and Josh Hazlewood will surely become a pop quiz in the time to come as the first person to score a run, fifty, take a wicket and a five-for in a day/night Test.

Pakistan has already shown interest in playing day-night Test. In the coming months, many other teams should come out and voice its support towards day-night Tests and take the debate forward.

What now needs to be done though is to try out this format in different locations, conditions and pitches. Playing day-night cricket in India would surely be a challenge as dew plays a huge factor in ODIs, where captains shy away from bowling second. In a 5-day game, where dew will surely be a massive factor, the turning wickets will hardly be of any help to bowlers if they can’t grip the ball.

The crowds that had come for the game, more than 120,000 people is a huge positive for the administrators of the game. It would encourage them to arrange for more day-night Tests in the future and one day, such games might become an integral part of the game, one can always hope.