India won at Nagpur
and thereby won the Series ~ SA have paled in colour with ordinary performances
in all the innings.
Miles
away, the 3rd Test of
Trans-Tasman Trophy played between 27th Nov to 1st Dec
2015 at Adelaide Oval is the most talked about ! – because of its novelty. Prior to the
match, Nathan Lyon fuelled speculation that Australia may field
two spinners stating that he expects the pink ball to give him and his
fellow tweakers an advantage. New South
Wales spinner Steve O’Keefe had been added to Australia’s 13-man squad and there were reports of Coach Darren Lehmann
weighing up whether to play two spinners
in a home Test for the first time in a decade as Lyon said he and O’Keefe would
not disappoint if paired together.
O’Keefe is a
self-described pink-ball specialist having taken 18 wickets at an average of
18.22 in three day-night matches for NSW over the last three years, including
match figures of 2-76 last month. As
Cricinfo reports - Cricket's first ball under lights was bowled by Imran Khan
to Rick McCosker on December 14, 1977. It was a practice match between the
Australia and World XI teams of Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket, on a
drop-in pitch at Waverley Park, a football stadium.
Now in this
Adelaide test, the pink ball certainly was
a head-turner. But it's not just being pretty in pink that has made it the
belle of the bat'n'ball. With the first ever day-night Test match starting at 2
pm local time, it was closer to our playing time at the morning 9 O clock – and
it was a match played day-night in pink ball.
The pink Kookaburra ball has its
own Twitter account and even a nickname, with 'Galah' and 'Panther' two of the
early contenders. Its celebrity status knew no bounds, as the ball and the
inaugural day-night test were resounding winners on a cracking occasion at the
Adelaide Oval on Friday. Even the previously sceptical players appeared sold
after playing in front of a fizzing crowd of 47,441.
"It played out
exactly as we forecasted. It was great to be part of it, an exciting day, and
an electric atmosphere out there. A few wickets tumbled and the game has well
and truly progressed now. Definitely a pretty good first day," Black Caps
swing bowler Trent Boult said. Twelve wickets fell on day one with Australia
having the advantage at stumps at 54-2 in reply to New Zealand's below par 202.
Although as Boult said, no-one really
knows what a par total is against the pink ball, but New Zealand were
disappointed with their batting effort when the ball did little in the air
during daylight hours.
Another
interesting trivia, as reported in The Guardian – in 138 years of Test cricket, the first break has always
been the lunch followed by the tea break but these breaks witness a ‘role
reversal’ during the Test match. For a change, the break after the first
session will be for tea with the duration being 20 minutes. It will happen at 4
pm local Adelaide time. The ‘Dinner’ break or may be rightfully called the
’Supper break’ will happen at 6:20 pm and will be of 40 minutes duration with
the final session happening from 7 pm to 9pm fully under floodlight.
Zaheer Abbas, the
president of the International Cricket Council, hailed the concept of day-night
Test matches days before Australia play New Zealand in the first-ever such
match, adding thathe saw the idea as "thoroughly enlightened". "The sceptics and critics might call it a
leap in the dark but I prefer to view the decision to play day-night Test
cricket - a concept set to become reality when Australia plays New Zealand in
Adelaide - as thoroughly enlightened," Abbas wrote in his column for the
ICC website.
The Hindu reports
that India’s only day-night first-class
match was the Ranji Trophy final between Mumbai and Delhi played with white ball
at the Roop Singh Stadium in Gwalior from April 5-9, 1997. For the record,
Mumbai won the Ranji Trophy by virtue of first innings lead. The BCCI did not
try day night first class matches after that.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
27th
Nov. 2015.
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