...on a green wicket it can speed up off the pitch.
Sorry, Z, but that's just not physics - unless you know something that Newton didn't. The pitch would have to supply energy to the ball. What does happen is that a rough or green pitch subverts our instinctive judgement of how the ball will behave. A green pitch is effectively two surfaces in one: a soft, grassy upper layer and a hard substrate. The seam of the new ball is sharp enough to penetrate the top layer, so a skilful bowler can exploit this by landing it at an angle where part of the ball bounces off the substrate and part off the grass, causing it to deviate.
A hard, true, 'fast' pitch, on the other hand, steals far less energy from the ball, so - counterintuitively, perhaps - is easier to bat on because the ball conforms more to expectations.
Don't knock baseball, though. Fascinating game, worth taking the trouble to get to know - although it pays to have some help from a tame American.
Last edited by: WillDeBeest on Sun 14 Jul 13 at 16:49
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