Cricket: Pink ball well received by Black Caps

Matt Henry catches the new pink cricket ball during a Black Caps training session at Seddon Park. Photo/Getty.

The Black Caps are growing more accustomed to the new pink ball after testing it out in a training session under lights at Seddon Park last night.

Initial impressions of the new Kookaburra ball were positive, after the players tested their catching out of the night sky.

Bowler Matt Henry felt the pink ball differed little to the white version used in one-day matches, and found it easy enough to spot and read as came out of the darkness.

"There's not too much difference under lights," said Henry.

"It's just the same thing, getting used to catching in dark conditions, really. There's not too much change, we've found, the pink ball's actually quite bright so it wasn't too bad."

Plenty of intrigue surrounded how the ball would appear during the twilight phase, but again, Henry said the comparison to the white ball was much of a muchness.

"It seemed ok actually. The twilight phase is difficult even with the white ball," he said.

"From what we gathered there wasn't too much of a change."

Assessing the swinging nature of the ball was difficult due to breezy conditions, but Henry hoped Friday's weather would enable them to get a clearer read on the ball's movement through the air.

"Yeah, it probably didn't help that it was quite a gusty day today, so it probably wasn't the best day to test out the swinging conditions. So, tomorrow we'll probably have a better indication, depending on how the weather is."

Batsman Tom Latham said the team was excited to prepare for their upcoming five match tour of Australia, including the inaugural day-night test against Australia in Adelaide on November 27, where the pink ball will make its debut.

"It's pretty exciting. We've got a chance to go over there and do what no New Zealand side has done in a long time," said Latham.

"So if we can go over and play the brand of cricket that we've been playing then hopefully the results will go our way."