James Anderson bemoaned the shape of the pink ball as England struggled to make inroads on a rain-interrupted second day of the first Test against New Zealand.
Just 23.1 overs were possible on Friday in Auckland as the Black Caps advanced from 175-3 to 229-4, extending their lead to 171 after the tourists' shambolic collapse to 58 all out on day one.
Kane Williamson brought up his 18th Test century - the most by any New Zealander - before he was trapped in front for 102 by Anderson, who was seen talking to the umpires about the shape of the ball.
"It's hard to swing a ball that's not round, that's why we've been trying to get it changed," he told Sky Sports.
"The umpires have got the silver hoop things that if the ball goes through then they're happy with it.
"Even the second new ball we got was out of shape - it went through the rings and even [umpire] Paul Reiffel said 'yes, it's not round but it's gone through the rings' so he can't change it.
"The umpires know the shape's not great."
Although inclement weather took time out of the game on Friday, England's calamitous batting display 24 hours earlier leaves the tourists with a mountain to climb in the day-night Test.
"It happened in a blur really and I think that's part of the problem because it was just once you get on a bad roll like that, it can escalate and that's what it did for us," Anderson added.
"It's something as a batting group where I'm sure there's already been chats in the dressing room and there will be further chats throughout this series to how we stop this happening again and how we can perform better and counter some fantastic bowling from the opposition, which you're going to come up against in international cricket.
"That's down to us as a team, using the coaches and the footage, to find out how we do that."
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