After Duke and Kookaburra, it’s SG on its debut. The ‘SG ball’ to be used for the first time in a D/N test, as India and Bangladesh lock horns in Kolkata on the 22 November 2019.
The Indian team thoroughly enjoyed themselves during the test at Holkar stadium, Indore where they defeated Bangladesh by an innings and 130 runs. Extensive contributions from all departments made this comprehensive victory even more special. Bangladesh now trails 1-0 down in the series and will hope to make complete use of the pink ball in order to level the series.
Both the nations will be playing their first Day/Night test (1 pm-8 pm) at the most historic ground of India, The Eden Gardens, Kolkata. Amongst other concerns, the players will like to keep a close watch on the S.G.pink ball, which is about to make its debut in this match.
The Kookaburra and Duke balls were used for these tests by other managements but with the SG ball coming into play, players may want to understand certain implications and differences. These three are the main manufacturers of the pink ball. England, Ireland and the West Indies use the Dukes ball whereas the others use the Kookaburra.
Jofra Archer, who was about to bowl with the Kookaburra for the first time said:
“I’d never bowled with the red Kookaburra before, but I knew it was going to be tough and so it proved. People say it has a smaller seam than the Dukes ball we use in England but I’m not sure it has a seam at all. It isn’t pronounced on any part of the ball. It doesn’t hold its shine either and gets very old, very fast.”
All these balls have six rows of stitches around the central seam, and here is where the main difference occurs. The Kookaburra has only the inner rows hand-stitched whereas the other two balls have all rows hand stitched. The outer rows of the Kookaburra ball our machine-stitched which makes it relatively flat after certain overs.
The Indian captain, Virat Kohli expressed his happiness and excitement to lead India into this historic match. The BCCI president, Mr. Sourav Ganguly revealed that the sale of tickets for each day was more than 65,000.
