Dubai: Pakistan and Sri Lanka players have worked hard to be in the pink of their fitness to tackle the challenge of facing the pink ball in the day-night Test match commencing on Friday at the Dubai International stadium.
This second Test of the two-match series is significant in many ways since this is the second time that Dubai will host a day-night Test match and it is the sixth in the history Test matches.
Dubai International Stadium had won huge praise from players for its lighting and hence is considered ideal for day-night cricket.
Speaking to Gulf News, Rajeshree Iyer, head of marketing at Dubai Sports City, said: “For day-night matches, Dubai International Stadium is considered the best. Unlike other stadiums which have light towers, this stadium has the lights fixed around the circumference of the its round roof, thereby minimising shadow of objects in the ground. There will be a total of 350 lights attached in series and in continuous motion.”
The pitch at this stadium has been prepared by Toby Lumaden.
“Toby is the head curator of ICC Academy grounds and the cricket stadium. Two Asian clay pitches were made for this match, while pitch number 3, made of Pakistan’s home clay, will be used for this Test. The pitch has been prepared slightly greener than normal to assist bowlers with bounce and movement,” Iyer added.
After Sri Lanka defeated Pakistan by 21 runs in the first Test, the second Test is expected to be intriguing as the hosts will have to press hard for a victory to level the series.
A clean sweep by Sri Lanka can help them leapfrog to sixth position in the Test rankings pushing Pakistan to seventh position.
For Pakistan, day-night cricket is not new since they had played the second ever day-night Test match in the history of the game against West Indies at the same venue in October last year and won by 56 runs. But for Sri Lanka, this will be their first day-night Test match.
Commenting on the challenge of playing with the pink ball, their team’s batting coach Hashan Tillakaratne said: “This is something new to us. We’ve had net practice with the pink ball at Khetterama [in Sri Lanka] and everyone is looking forward to this match.”
As preparation for this match, Sri Lanka watched last year’s Pakistan-West Indies Test match at night here. “At Khetterama the pink ball moved a bit. When we watched Pakistan play West Indies here, the ball did not do much and it was a good batting track.”
The match is expected to start at 2pm and end at 9pm. For the first time organisers have introduced season tickets so that fans can enjoy both the Test Match and the oncoming ODI matches at this venue using the same ticket. Season tickets rates start from as low as Dh90. All tickets can be purchased from Q-tickets.com.
The question that remains to be answered is whether the pink ball will swing or spin. Hence all eyes will be on Pakistan pacer Mohammed Amir — who is considered one of the finest swing bowlers in world cricket today — and Sri Lankan spinner Rangana Herath, who destroyed Pakistan in the first Test match with a match haul of 11 wickets.
