Quaid Trophy: Super-Eight round to commence today

Bowlers find Kookaburra balls a difficult challenge.

KARACHI: The Super-Eight stage of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy will commence today with three matches to be played across the country as bowlers continue to struggle with the internationally used Kookaburra balls.

The two teams of Lahore – Shalimar and Ravi – will take on each other at the LCCA Ground while Rawalpindi will host Islamabad. Meanwhile, there are also matches being played between the teams that finished in the bottom-three in their respective groups. Abbottabad will tackle Multan at the Gohati Cricket Stadium while Quetta will travel to play against Peshawar at the Arbab Niaz Stadium.

Kookaburra balls of the Australian origin are being used in the event as the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) wants to improve the quality of domestic cricket. However, the change has brought problems for bowlers as they are finding it hard to come to terms with it.

“Kookaburra is very light in weight, thus it requires lot of effort from fast-bowlers to generate pace,” one of the quickies of Lahore told The Express Tribune. “It hardly has any seam, so one really needs to be perfect to be able to produce any sort of movement off the pitch. The Grays that were used previously had a thick seam and possessed considerable weight and consequently not much effort was required from the quickies.”

However, the bowler admitted that while the balls were initially posing difficulties, they will ensure fruitful benefits with time.

Similarly, the spinners said it was quite hard to grip the Kookaburra as they are slippery and the diminished seam hardly helps their cause.

“The spinners require a good grip over the ball to produce more rotation to get the ball to turn and land it on the spot they want,” said a Karachi Whites spinner. “But with these balls, our job has been very tricky as it’s really hard to land the ball on the right spot continuously.”

On the other hand, the batsmen are pleased with the balls as they feel they have a better chance to stand tall against fast-bowlers and adjust easily as the ball does not dance around too much.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 6^th, 2013.