James Anderson expressed his discontent over the shape of the pink ball as England struggled to make inroads on a rain-interrupted second day of the first Test against New Zealand.
Meanwhile, the Kiwis extended their lead to 171 as only 23.1 overs were possible in Auckland. Earlier, the visitors suffered a batting collapse as the Kiwis bowled them out for a mere 58 runs.
New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson brought up his 18th Test century, before getting out for 102 by Anderson. Williamson now holds the record of highest number of Test centuries for the Kiwis. Meanwhile, Anderson raised issues about the shape of the ball and said that it was tough to swing the ball.
“It’s hard to swing a ball that’s not round, that’s why we’ve been trying to get it changed,” he told Sky Sports. “The umpires have got the silver hoop things that if the ball goes through then, they’re happy with it. Even the second new ball we got was out of shape – it went through the rings and even [umpire] Paul Reiffelsaid ‘yes, it’s not round, but it’s gone through the rings’ so he can’t change it. The umpires know the shape’s not great,” he added.
Meanwhile, after a dismal show with the bat, England has a mountain to climb in the ongoing day-night Test. Anderson maintained that they need to regroup as a batting unit and look forward to stopping this to happen.
“That’s down to us as a team, using the coaches and the footage, to find out how we do that,” he concluded.
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