====================================================================

Dukes owner pledges to investigate controversial ball change during Oval
Test

He also suggested it was unlikely that the ball might have been part of
the 2018 or 2019 batches of Dukes, which offered more for seam bowlers

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/dukes-owner-pledges-to-investigate-controversial-ball-change-during-oval-ashes-test-1391026

The owner of Dukes has pledged to investigate the controversial ball
change in Australia's second innings during their 49-run defeat in the
fifth men's Ashes Test at The Oval, while casting doubt on a theory that
a five-year-old replacement ball might have been used.

The ball was changed in the 37th over of Australia's chase, after Usman
Khawaja was hit on the helmet by a Mark Wood bouncer. Khawaja said after
Australia's defeat that he had immediately queried the choice of
replacement ball - which looked visibly newer than the previous one -
with umpire Kumar Dharmasena.

Ricky Ponting, the former Australia captain, labelled the choice of
replacement ball "a huge blunder that needs to be investigated" while
Zak Crawley, the England opener, described it as "a good break for us
[which] probably made the difference".

CODE Sports reported that "whispers have emanated out of the English
camp" since the conclusion of the Test suggesting that the ball might
have been part of the 2018 or 2019 batches of Dukes, which offered more
for seam bowlers, though Jajodia suggested that was unlikely.

"I can't imagine they would risk putting a ball in there with a
different date on it," Jajodia said. "Frankly the match referee should
be on top of it. We do bang that number in quite hard, so even if the
gold comes off, the ball is imprinted. It wouldn't be easy to get rid of
it. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's not likely."

Ponting was among those who questioned whether a sufficiently broad
range of balls had been presented to the umpires to choose a replacement
ball. But Jajodia explained that his company supplies balls directly to
venues rather than to the ECB or the ICC.

"On this particular occasion, the balls would be done by Surrey," he
said. "Surrey get the supply of balls from us before the season starts
and then they start knocking them in, getting them into wear and tear…
in my view, they're probably not doing it that accurately."