SOMERSET all-rounder Peter Trego has criticised the pink Kookaburra ball being used during the day/night County Championship clash against Essex in Chelmsford.

Day two ended with Somerset on 140-2 in response to the hosts' 517-5 declared, and Trego didn't mince his words at the close of play.

The 37-year-old said: “The cricket balls we normally use in a four-day game are leather with a dye in it to shine up.

"This Kookaburra ball is some sort of plastic, PVC-sort of coating which peels off and doesn’t really do anything – it doesn’t swing, it doesn’t shine, the seam is very flat and it isn’t really a fair contest between bat and ball.

"It’s probably fair to say that ball doesn’t belong in four-day cricket in England.”

Of Essex’s declaration, Trego said: “I thought they might have gone on a bit longer, but fair play to Essex, they realised that it’s an attritional-style game and they need a volume of overs to bowl us out.

"They’ve gone for that, they could have decided to stay out there for another half-an-hour.

"But they gave their bowlers the chance to do a bit of damage, and they got two wickets tonight. We’ve got to be right on it tomorrow. One slip-up session in the next two could be hard work for us.”

Trego ended with figures of 1-43 in his 20 overs, picking up the deserved wicket of Ravi Bopara after an economical day and a half's work.

He said: “I think I have got to the age where I have more ability to be really, really boring than some of our more exciting bowlers. No, I was just trying to do a job for the team.

"It was obvious we needed to stem the flow. They were pretty difficult conditions with a ball that’s not conducive for cricket. It was tough work but someone’s got to do it sometimes.”