‘Not pleased with quality’: After Ashwin, captain Kohli not happy with SG Test balls

The Indian captain said that the balls went completely soft by the 60th over with stitches coming off their seam.

Published on: Feb 10, 2021, 13:52:53 IST

By hindustantimes.com

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Indian captain Virat Kohli on Tuesday expressed his displeasure over the quality of the SG Test balls used in the first Test against England which the hosts lost by 227 runs. The Indian captain said that the balls went completely soft by the 60th over with stitches coming off their seam.

Indian captain Virat Kohli (L) and spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (Twitter)

It was pretty evident during that game that the Indian bowlers weren’t happy with the condition of the ball. The Indian skipper spoke about the same during the post-match press conference, adding that it's ‘not an excuse’ to their loss to England.

“Quality of the ball (SG-Test) was also not what we were very pleased to see as that was also the case in the past. Just the ball completely being destroyed in 60 overs is not something that you experience as a Test side and any side could be prepared for,” Kohli said.

“Having said that it's not an excuse and England played better cricket and they deserve to win,” Kohli added.

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There were reports that the Meerut-based Sanspareils Greenlands (SG) had manufactured a fresh set of balls for the series with pronounced and enhanced (heightened) seam, darker colour and harder cork, but it seems that problems that the players had with the quality of the balls, remains.

Earlier on Monday, Ashwin also said that they didn't expect a torn seam with stitches being peeled off.

“I have never seen an SG ball tear (get torn) through the seam like that. So it could well be combination of how hard the pitch was on the first two days, even in the second innings after the 35th-40th over, the seam was getting sort of peeled off,” he said.

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Ashwin called it bizarre and, like Kohli, he also hadn't experienced anything like this.

“It was bizarre, I mean, I haven't seen an SG ball like that in last so many years, but yeah, maybe it could be due to the pitch and the hardness of it through the centre which is making the ball get scuffed up,” he said.

(With PTI Inputs)

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