SPORTS SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2015

Day-night Test to go ahead despite stink over pink ball

SYDNEY: Cricket Australia says it intends to tional paceman John Hastings scoffed: “The It’s difficult to get people to the cricket,” the week for his New South Wales state side, said proceed with next month’s contentious first- ball doesn’t move off the straight. spokesman said. “That’s why time shifting he had trouble sighting the pink ball, even ever day-night Test despite player unease “All you got to do is set straight fields, it’s the ordinary hours of the Test match to later though the entirety of his innings against over the experimental pink ball to be used. quite a boring brand of cricket when you do in the day will allow more people to attend Queensland was played in daylight. The historic Test is scheduled for Adelaide have that pink ball,” he said. It has sparked the matches and watch on TV.” CA said ticket “I found it quite hard to see the seam,” he Oval on November 27 between Australia and calls from some for Cricket Australia to revert sales for the Test have been “incredibly told reporters. “I found it quite hard to tell New Zealand in a move authorities hope will the Adelaide Test back to its traditional day- strong” with the interest shown by fans on when the bowler was sort of trying to swing boost television audiences and usher in a time schedule, but the organisation is having par with an Ashes series against England. it a certain way, or sometimes with the spin- lucrative new era for the five-day game. none of it. Kookaburra has defended its pink ball ners, it was a bit hard to pick up.” But overall Manufacturer Kookaburra said it has tried to “We’re confident with the work that’s and said it had gone through rigorous test- he thought the pink balls “played quite well”. sculpt a suitable ball for the occasion-some- been done on the pink ball over many years ing. “I don’t think any Test ball has gone “It looked like it held together quite well thing that is visible under lights but behaves and Kookaburra have been developing it through the level of testing and develop- throughout the day, probably a lot better similar to a traditional red ball. over seven years,” a CA spokesman told AFP. ment that the pink ball has got and the num- than it did on the more abrasive surface of But the innovation has been criticised by “We’ve had two successive seasons of ber of trials and feedback,” Kookaburra man- Canberra, so that is I guess good signs.” players, with new Australia skipper Steve Sheffield Shield cricket where pink balls have aging director Brett Elliott said. “I think there Former Test fast bowler Ryan Harris said it Smith saying on Wednesday he had trouble been trialled.” CA said the move to stage part is probably more data on the development was time players accepted the radical seeing the seam after batting against it for of each day’s play under lights was to suit of this ball than there is on any ball before it change. “It’s here to stay,” he said of the pink the first time. Senior Australian batsman fans. “The day-night Test is all about the fans. was entered into the first-class arena.” ball. “It’s new, it’s like when Twenty20 came Adam Voges added that the pink ball did not We are challenged in the early parts of the But still there are questions about its use, in-no one knew how it was going to go. hold up well in recent games against New season-the first month of the summer when just weeks before the hotly debated day- Players had to adapt to it and that’s what Zealand in Canberra, while one-day interna- kids are still at school and adults are working. night Test in Adelaide. Smith, batting this they will have to do here.” — AFP Tricky Kiwi test for Pakistan seek series win Aussies in transition as farewell gift for Misbah MELBOURNE: A resurgent New Zealand have landed in Australia with high hopes of upsetting Steven Smith’s rebuilding side in a three- match series capped by test cricket’s first day-night clash. SHARJAH: Pakistan target victory over New Zealand have not won a test series on Australian soil since England in the third and final Test from tomor- 1985/86, when a marauding Richard Hadlee was in his pomp, but row in what would be a fitting farewell for Brendon McCullum’s team may have their best chance to break the Misbah-ul-Haq, the country’s most successful drought against vulnerable opponents in the throes of transition. captain who has hinted he’s ready to retire. The series continues a calendar-long feast of sporting rivalry The 41-year-old, who quit one-day cricket between the Antipodean nations, who face off in the Rugby World Cup after the World Cup earlier this year, had sug- title-decider in London on Saturday and have also clashed in rugby gested that he would leave the game after a league and netball this year. two-Test series against India in December- For McCullum’s Black Caps, however, it offers the chance to extract January. But with relations between the arch- a measure of revenge for their stinging World Cup final loss in March, rivals once again strained and with that series when they were destroyed by the hosts in front of a baying Melbourne in doubt, this England series may be Misbah’s Cricket Ground crowd. Then, New Zealand’s run to the final had a fairy- last. “To be honest, I haven’t made a decision tale quality, and their team were cast as a swashbuckling band of on my retirement yet. I don’t know if we will be upstarts crashing a party for cricket’s traditional powers. playing against India this season or if there will McCullum’s side have since established themselves as contenders in be an alternative series coming up, so I’ve not the red-ball game, splitting an enthralling test series 1-1 on English made up mind yet,” Misbah wrote in his col- pitches, where Australia were found wanting in a subsequent 3-2 Ashes umn for cricket.com.au. Pakistan are 1-0 up defeat. The Black Caps can expect little of the patronising tone that has against England after winning the second Test welcomed weaker New Zealand teams of the past in Australia but more by 178 runs in Dubai. The first Test ended in a than the usual serving of outright hostility from local crowds. Australian draw in Abu Dhabi. fans are unaccustomed to disappointment, having not witnessed a test A 2-0 series win will lift Pakistan to number defeat on home pitches for three years and are likely to give McCullum’s two in ICC (International Cricket Council) Test team a similarly spirited reception to that which greeted England dur- rankings, previously briefly attained by them ing the 5-0 whitewash in 2013/14. Australia may only dream of such for few days in August 2006. dominance now, with new captain Smith inheriting a side depleted by Misbah’s personal form and fitness suggest the retirements of former skipper and master tactician Michael Clarke, he can carry on, having scored 3, 51, 102 and opening batsman Chris Rogers and all-rounder Shane Watson. 87 in the four innings of the series. Mitchell Marsh is a worthy candidate to carry the all-round duties, But he said a player should leave the game but New Zealand seamers Trent Boult and Tim Southee will be eager on a high. “One should think about leaving the to tear into Australia’s top order reinforcements Joe Burns and game with respect rather than leaving it when Usman Khawaja, who have been named for next week’s opening test he is forced to leave,” said Misbah. Misbah will in Brisbane and the second match in Perth. Burns showed himself an hope his team does not squander a good able replacement for Rogers in scoring two half-centuries against opportunity to win another Test series, like India during the last home summer but Queensland captain Khawaja they did against New Zealand to who fought is on his third life after failing twice before to cement his place at the back for 1-1 in Sharjah last year. highest level. — Reuters The Sharjah stadium pitch has been relaid and is likely to help spinners, with leggie Yasir Shah, who took eight wickets in Dubai, and left-armer Zulfiqar Babar, who managed three DUBAI: Pakistan’s Misbah Ul Haq walks off the pitch after losing his wicket in wickets, playing a key role. Shah worked with this file photo. — AFP legendary Australian spinner Shane Warne in the nets on Thursday. wicket. Skipper Alastair Cook said changes will Teams (from): Pakistan are likely to bring in Azhar Ali- be decided after inspecting the pitch. Pakistan: Misbah-ul-Haq (captain), Ahmed who missed the first Test with injury and sec- “Naturally when you lose a game or peo- Shehzad, Shan Masood, Azhar Ali, Mohammad ond after his mother-in-law died-to open the ple haven’t performed as well as they would Hafeez, Fawad Alam, Asad Shafiq, Younis Khan, innings in place of Shan Masood. England, have liked, people will look at the team. We Shoaib Malik, Sarfraz Ahmed, Yasir Shah, who were routed 3-0 by Pakistan in the have a good squad and players itching to get Zulfiqar Babar, Wahab Riaz, Imran Khan, Rahat United Arab Emirates three years ago, are like- in,” said Cook. “We’ll look at our team and if Ali, Junaid Khan, Bilal Asif, Mohammad Rizwan ly to bring in middle-order batsman James we sustain the type of cricket we’ve played for England: Alastair Cook (capt), Moeen Ali, Taylor for Jos Butler who has failed as wicket- five days rather than four-and-a-half we’ve James Anderson, Samit Patel, Jonny Bairstow, keeper/batsman, managing just 34 in four got a really good chance.” If England, current- Ian Bell, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler, Chris Jordan, innings. KABUL: Afghanistan’s national cricket team players hold ly third in the rankings, lose the series 2-0 they Alex Hales, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, If that happens, Jonny Bairstow will keep their trophies in Kabul yesterday. — AP will drop to as low as sixth. Ben Stokes, James Taylor, Mark Wood. — AFP