The balls used in the initial four years of the competition had a large ‘H’ logo imprinted on them.
The England Cricket Board (ECB) has decided to discontinue the debatable Kookaburra balls in The Hundred, which were deemed a reason for low scores. The balls used in the initial four years of the competition had a large ‘H’ logo imprinted on them, which batters felt required more lacquer.
Players felt the ball was moving excessively, especially when new, which meant the teams couldn’t utilise the field restrictions in the powerplay. For instance, Moeen Ali pointed out a relatively bigger seam on the batch of balls used last season, citing it was one of the reasons why the ball nipped around more often.
Kookaburra claimed the balls were made with the same specifications as other balls of the brand, with the logo being the only difference. According to ESPNcricinfo, the ECB conducted an extensive study to understand whether there were any excessive changes in this special batch of balls, but found minimal evidence about a difference in behaviour compared to other white balls used in England and Wales.
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Still, the ECB has decided not to use these balls and opted for the ones used in the T20 Blast 2025, which are the usual Kookaburra balls used everywhere. They hope it will increase the scoring rate, and games will become more high-scoring than they have historically been.
Maybe the balls with an ‘H’ logo have favoured bowlers more than usual, but they are not the only reason why scoring rates have consistently been low. There are other factors, like the pitch, weather conditions, and the tournament’s format, which can often favour bowlers.
The Hundred is often played in late summer when the pitches are mostly tired due to the County Championship and other white-ball competitions in the 50-over and T20 format. Then, the weather and evening matches naturally generate more movement in the air, making the powerplay bowlers more potent.
The format allows a bowler to bowl ten consecutive deliveries, and teams often frontload their powerplay specialists by giving them 15 out of the first 20 balls during the field restrictions. Oval Invincibles employed this tactic last night by providing an extended spell to Jason Behrendorff, who picked up two wickets inside the powerplay.
The batch of balls in the T20 Blast 2025 was used in the opening fixture of The Hundred 2025 at Lord’s, but the game was still low-scoring, as the London Spirit failed to get going and couldn’t even last 100 deliveries. So, the balls can’t be completely blamed; several other factors have contributed to batters’ issues in this tournament.
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