West Indies use practice match to adjust to pink ball

WEST Indies head coach Phil Simmons said the day/night pink ball practice match against the Australia Prime Minister’s XI will serve as ample preparation for the second Test match against Australia in December.

The match bowled off at Manuka Oval in Canberra at 11 pm on Tuesday, TT time.

The second and last Test match, at the Adelaide Oval from December 8-12, will be a day/night match, in which the pink ball will also be used.

“All we are looking forward to is a hard game of first-class cricket to put us in tune for next week in Perth (for the first Test match,” Simmons said. “It is a little bit of a difference (playing with the pink ball). Some of the guys have played a pink-ball Test or two, but most of the guys haven’t. It is just about getting accustomed to it, and it is a good thing we have this game so we could get accustomed to what it is going to do at different periods in the day and in the night, and just prepare ourselves for Adelaide.”

On adjusting to the pink ball, Simmons said, “That’s the sort of things that you got to look at...make sure that we bowl the right lengths with the ball. It is going to be different to the red ball. We have seen now in the fielding and the slip-catching it is a lot easier to spot (the pink ball), so the catching has been easier.”

The West Indies batsmen scored heavily in the last practice match against New South Wales/Australian Capital Territory XI, which ended in a draw at the EPC Solar Park in Canberra on Saturday.

In the West Indies first innings total of 424/9 declared, Devon Thomas (77 not out), Kraigg Brathwaite (75), Shamarh Brooks (56) and Jason Holder (50 retired out) all scored half-centuries.

Simmons was pleased with the effort.

“I think it turned out to be good. Their batsmen put our bowlers under pressure and most of our batsmen got a good long stay in the wicket. So that’s what we wanted to get out of it, so it was great.”

This will be Simmons's last assignment. He announced his resignation a month ago, but he and Cricket West Indies decided the former West Indies all-rounder would coach West Indies in the two-match series against the Aussies. Test captain Kraigg Brathwaite also wanted Simmons to coach the team in Australia.