Captains waste the second new ball almost every time

Taking the hard ball the instant it becomes available is habit dressed as tactics, and it often hands the batting side a reprieve.

Eighty overs comes up, the umpire offers, and the captain takes it. Nearly always. The decision is made so automatically that I am not sure it counts as a decision.

Think about what is being given up. An old ball on a fourth afternoon pitch, in the hands of a spinner who has been bowling into the rough for an hour, is an unusual and difficult thing to face. A ball soft enough to move late in the right conditions is the same. Both of those disappear the moment the new one comes out, and they do not come back for another eighty overs, by which time the innings is probably over.

What you gain is real too. Hardness, carry to the slips, seam movement for maybe fifteen overs if the surface helps. Against a new batter that is a fine trade. Against a set pair who have been in for two sessions and who will now get a ball that comes onto the bat, it is often a straightforwardly bad one, and the scoring rate jumps for half an hour while the fielding side congratulates itself on its aggression.

The timing question is separate from the taking question and gets even less thought. If your spinner is causing problems, bowl him out. If a wicket falls at eighty three overs, that is the moment, because now the hard ball meets somebody who has not faced a ball all day. Waiting eight overs for a wicket to fall costs you very little and can be worth an entire session. Some captains do this. Most do not, and the ones who do get accused of negativity when the runs come in the interim.

There is a conditions dimension people skip. On a slow, low pitch, the new ball is less of a weapon than the old one, because carry is the thing the surface is refusing to provide and hardness does not solve it. On a green top with cloud cover, take it immediately and do not think twice.

My general rule would be simple. Take the new ball when you can name the specific thing you expect it to do. Movement, carry, a particular batter's weakness against pace. If the honest answer is that eighty overs have passed, leave it and keep bowling.

Habit is not a plan, and the scorecard does not award points for orthodoxy.