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A cricket ball is a hard, solid ball used to play cricket. more...
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Manufacture
Cricket balls are made from a core of cork, which is layered with tightly wound string, and covered by a leather case with a slightly raised sewn seam. The covering is constructed of four pieces of leather shaped similar to the peel of a quartered orange, but one hemisphere is rotated by 90 degrees with respect to the other. The \"equator\" of the ball is stitched with string to form the seam, with a total of six rows of stitches. The remaining two joins between the leather pieces are left unstitched.
For men's cricket, the ball must weigh between 5.5 and 5.75 ounces (155.9 and 163.0 g) and measure between 8 13/16 and 9 in (224 and 229 mm) in circumference. Balls used in women's and youth matches are slightly smaller.
Cricket balls are traditionally dyed red, and red balls are used in Test cricket and First-class cricket. White balls were introduced when one-day matches began being played at night under floodlights, as they are more visible at night. Professional one-day matches are now played with white balls. Other colours have occasionally been experimented with, such as yellow and orange for improved night visibility, but the colouring process has so far rendered such balls unsuitable for professional play because they wear differently to standard balls.The white ball has been found to swing a lot more during the first half of the innings than the red ball. It also deteriorates faster than the red ball.
Condition of a cricket ball
A new, highly polished ball is used at the start of each innings in a match. A cricket ball may not be replaced except under specific conditions described in the Laws of Cricket:
If the ball becomes damaged or lost.;
If the condition of the ball is illegally modified by a player.;
After a specified number of overs (80 in Test cricket), the captain of the bowling side has the option to take a new ball.;
The ball is not replaced if it is hit into the crowd - the crowd must return it. If the ball is damaged, lost, or illegally modified, it will be replaced by a used ball in similar condition to the replaced ball. A new ball can only be used after the specified minimum number of overs have been bowled with the old one.
Because a single ball is used for an extended period of play, its surface wears down and becomes rough. The bowlers will polish it whenever they can - usually by rubbing it on their trousers, producing the characteristic red stain that can often be seen there. However, they will usually only polish one side of the ball, in order to create 'swing' as it travels through the air. They may apply natural substances (i.e. saliva or sweat) to the ball as they polish it, but any other material is illegal.
Read more at Wikipedia.org
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