The aim of this study was to describe the performance of cricket bats and balls. An experimental test apparatus was developed to measure the performance of cricket bats and balls under dynamic impact conditions representative of play. Experiments were carried out to measure the elasticity and hardness of the cricket balls as the function of incoming speed. It was observed that the ball coefficient of restitution and hardness of seam impacts was 1.1% and 1.6% higher than face impacts, respectively. A bat performance measure was derived in terms of an ideal batted-ball speed based on play conditions. Bat performance was compared before and after knock-in (a common treatment to new cricket bats) which decreased 0.24%. Wood species had a relatively small effect where the performance of English willow bats was on average 0.84% higher than Kashmir willow bats. A composite skin, applied to the back of some bats, was observed to increase performance by 1.4%. While the different treatments and designs had a measurable effect on performance, they were much smaller than the 10% difference observed between solid wood and hollow baseball and softball bats.
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