Matches played into the evening cannot use the traditional red ball. The substitute solves a visibility problem and introduces several new ones.
The visibility problem
A red ball is easy to see against grass in daylight but merges into the dark background beyond the boundary once floodlights are the only source of illumination.
Batting against a delivery you pick up late is not merely difficult but genuinely dangerous, which rules out simply playing the traditional ball later into the evening.
White balls solve the visibility issue and are used in limited-overs cricket, but they are unsuitable for a long innings because they discolour quickly against a white sightscreen.
Why the pink ball was chosen
Pink sits far enough from both green grass and a dark sky to remain visible in twilight and under lights, which is the hardest period of a day-night match.
It also retains enough colour through a long innings to remain usable, which white does not, and this durability was the main manufacturing challenge.
Achieving it required a heavier lacquer coating and a different dyeing process, and those changes alter how the ball behaves as well as how it looks.
How the extra lacquer changes play
The harder coating keeps the shine on the ball longer, which sustains swing well beyond the point at which a red ball would stop moving through the air.
It also delays reverse swing, because that depends on one side roughening up and the lacquer resists exactly that kind of wear.
Bowlers accustomed to a predictable progression from swing to seam to reverse find the sequence stretched and reordered, and plans built on it need rewriting.
The twilight session
The period as natural light fades and floodlights take over is consistently the most difficult for batting, and scoring rates tend to drop through it.
Cooler air in the evening also helps the ball swing, so the conditions and the light problem arrive together rather than separately.
Captains plan around that window deliberately, holding back their best bowlers and timing declarations so that the opposition faces it.
Why adoption has been cautious
Day-night matches were introduced to draw larger evening crowds and better television audiences, and on that measure they have generally succeeded.
Players have been more reserved, citing the difficulty of the twilight period and the sense that conditions vary more within a day than in a conventional match.
The format is therefore used selectively rather than universally, and boards tend to schedule it where the local climate makes the evening session manageable.
