I have been to every Day/Night Test ever played at Adelaide.
The matches have been completely different to the Day/Night Tests at Brisbane and at Dubai and at Birmingham and at Bridgetown and at Kolkata.
The Australian Pink Kookaburra is not a very robust ball. A few days before the inaugural Pink Ball Test at Adelaide, the touring Kiwis played a Pink Ball daytime match against a Cricket Australia XI at Blacktown outside Sydney. The game was abandoned after 121 overs with the Aussies 503-1 wicket.
Three weeks later, just before the first Day/Night Test, a dress rehearsal at Perth saw more huge scores.
The problem was that like all Kookaburras the Pink ball has a pathetic machine-stitched seam, but the ball itself become soft and lifeless like a rag doll and cannot be swung, seamed or spun.
So Cricket Australia and Kookaburra accidentally came upon an emergency plan for the first Adelaide Test that worked so well that it has been repeated twice since. The Emergency Plan was - and is......
1. The curator leaves the outfield lush and green. There is no reverse swing (except one suspicious spell before Sandpapergate in the Ashes) but the ball remains harder and less damaged.
2. The pitch itself is left with a thick covering of grass. Again, this keeps the ball newer and harder.
3. The ball has several additional coats of varnish added to ensure that it stays undamaged for longer.
The consequences have been clear for all to see:
Year 1 match scores
202
224
208
187-7
(Highest match score of 66)
Year 2 match scores
259-9d
383
250
127-3
(3 centuries)
Year 3 match scores
442-8d
227
138
233
(1 century)
In other words, in 12 innings there has been:
1. One single innings score over 390.
2. Eight completed innings lower than 260
The Curator at Australia's other Day/Night ground, in Brisbane, has experimented with removing all the grass, but in doing so he turned Wahab Riaz and Yasir Shah into Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli.
The Adelaide matches have been gripping cricket, but the argument of purists is that they "are not real Test cricket". This is based upon factors such as the most dangerous time to bat being immediately after Dinner against a New Ball.
This famously led FAF Du Plessis to bat on after Dinner on Day 1 when his team was 165-7. They managed to resist the old ball in the difficult period and reached 259-9 by the time he declared, but the damage was done - he allowed Australia to score their runs in daylight the next day. Even when the second new ball came, it was too late - it was halfway through the final session on Day 2 when the danger hour had passed.
The question now is whether the same formula will be used for Pakistan in 2019-20, especially with the New Zealanders playing a Day/Night Test at Perth just a fortnight later.
Ultimately it's true, it is not conventional Test cricket.
But it's very similar to the old 60 over red Dukes Ball ODIs which were played in England until around 1990.
There is a slip cordon like Test cricket.
There is conventional (not reverse) swing and there is seam movement, and there is bounce for the spin bowlers.
There is only on average a single century scored per Test.
But there are specific tactics required. If you start batting when play begins after Lunch you need to score 100 by Tea and 240 by Dinner, and then you need to declare to enable your bowlers to use the New Ball in the Danger Hour after Dinner.
Unlike everywhere else in Australia, quick bowlers don't need to be tall or quick. Just accurate, and able to bowl a full length and hit the seam.
As FAF du Plessis learned, the extra runs from 165-7 at Dinner to 259-9 at the declaration were worthless, because they deprived his bowlers of the conditions straight after Dinner that they required to remove the opposition's top order.
That's a pretty strange lesson for a Test captain. It's counter-intuitive to declare at 165-7 rather than reach 259-9.
But if the grass is still as long at Adelaide this Friday, and if the Pink Kookaburra is still carrying extra levels of varnish, it's exactly what Azhar Ali and Tim Paine need to be prepared to do.
The matches have been completely different to the Day/Night Tests at Brisbane and at Dubai and at Birmingham and at Bridgetown and at Kolkata.
The Australian Pink Kookaburra is not a very robust ball. A few days before the inaugural Pink Ball Test at Adelaide, the touring Kiwis played a Pink Ball daytime match against a Cricket Australia XI at Blacktown outside Sydney. The game was abandoned after 121 overs with the Aussies 503-1 wicket.
Three weeks later, just before the first Day/Night Test, a dress rehearsal at Perth saw more huge scores.
The problem was that like all Kookaburras the Pink ball has a pathetic machine-stitched seam, but the ball itself become soft and lifeless like a rag doll and cannot be swung, seamed or spun.
So Cricket Australia and Kookaburra accidentally came upon an emergency plan for the first Adelaide Test that worked so well that it has been repeated twice since. The Emergency Plan was - and is......
1. The curator leaves the outfield lush and green. There is no reverse swing (except one suspicious spell before Sandpapergate in the Ashes) but the ball remains harder and less damaged.
2. The pitch itself is left with a thick covering of grass. Again, this keeps the ball newer and harder.
3. The ball has several additional coats of varnish added to ensure that it stays undamaged for longer.
The consequences have been clear for all to see:
Year 1 match scores
202
224
208
187-7
(Highest match score of 66)
Year 2 match scores
259-9d
383
250
127-3
(3 centuries)
Year 3 match scores
442-8d
227
138
233
(1 century)
In other words, in 12 innings there has been:
1. One single innings score over 390.
2. Eight completed innings lower than 260
The Curator at Australia's other Day/Night ground, in Brisbane, has experimented with removing all the grass, but in doing so he turned Wahab Riaz and Yasir Shah into Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli.
The Adelaide matches have been gripping cricket, but the argument of purists is that they "are not real Test cricket". This is based upon factors such as the most dangerous time to bat being immediately after Dinner against a New Ball.
This famously led FAF Du Plessis to bat on after Dinner on Day 1 when his team was 165-7. They managed to resist the old ball in the difficult period and reached 259-9 by the time he declared, but the damage was done - he allowed Australia to score their runs in daylight the next day. Even when the second new ball came, it was too late - it was halfway through the final session on Day 2 when the danger hour had passed.
The question now is whether the same formula will be used for Pakistan in 2019-20, especially with the New Zealanders playing a Day/Night Test at Perth just a fortnight later.
Ultimately it's true, it is not conventional Test cricket.
But it's very similar to the old 60 over red Dukes Ball ODIs which were played in England until around 1990.
There is a slip cordon like Test cricket.
There is conventional (not reverse) swing and there is seam movement, and there is bounce for the spin bowlers.
There is only on average a single century scored per Test.
But there are specific tactics required. If you start batting when play begins after Lunch you need to score 100 by Tea and 240 by Dinner, and then you need to declare to enable your bowlers to use the New Ball in the Danger Hour after Dinner.
Unlike everywhere else in Australia, quick bowlers don't need to be tall or quick. Just accurate, and able to bowl a full length and hit the seam.
As FAF du Plessis learned, the extra runs from 165-7 at Dinner to 259-9 at the declaration were worthless, because they deprived his bowlers of the conditions straight after Dinner that they required to remove the opposition's top order.
That's a pretty strange lesson for a Test captain. It's counter-intuitive to declare at 165-7 rather than reach 259-9.
But if the grass is still as long at Adelaide this Friday, and if the Pink Kookaburra is still carrying extra levels of varnish, it's exactly what Azhar Ali and Tim Paine need to be prepared to do.
