5 things we learned from India's first Day/Night FC match with the pink ball

Less spin but lot of drift

Left arm chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav stole the show in the 2^nd innings – finishing with 9 wickets in the match

A cover of 4mm grass was kept on the pitch of the Greater Noida stadium, and there was more grass cover on the rest of the surface of the ground as well, conforming to guidelines that excess grass needs to be kept in matches in which the pink ball will be used, because this ball is more susceptible to wear and tear. Despite there being more grass cover than in usual Indian grounds, it was less than the grass seen on the Eden Gardens pitch. Consequently, while spinners were used very frugally in the CAB Super League final, there were spinners on show in the Duleep Trophy match.

While the degree of turn on the pitch was not very much, a lot of the spinners got considerable drift and dip. Because the ball stays hard unlike the red ball which gets softer as play goes on, it is more difficult for spinners to extract turn. However, because the shine of the pink ball stays on, it tends to skid on to the stumps.

While Pragyan Ojha and Kuldeep Yadav claimed 3 wickets each in the first innings, there were two five wicket hauls for spinners in the 2^nd innings – Kuldeep Yadav’s 6/88 and Shreyas Gopal’s 5/123.