History will be made on Monday when Durham take on Worcestershire in the inaugural floodlit County Championship matches for the first in the 127 years.
Durham are one of nine counties hosting the four-day floodlit matches, which get underway at 2pm across the country.
Dukes balls will be used across the country, similar to those used back in 2015 when Australia took on New Zealand in the first day-night test match at the Adelaide Oval, where Australia ran out as winners by three wickets.
A pink ball was first used in Brisbane back in January 2008 during a trial match where Queensland Women played Western Australia women before it made its debut at Lord’s in a 50-over game between the MCC XI and Scotland. On that occasion, both Dukes and Kookaburra balls were trialled.
Two years later in January 2010, the first century was scored with a pink ball in the West Indies as Lendl Simmons reached double figures in a day night fixture at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium as Trinidad and Tobago took on Guyana.
In March 2010, the pink ball was trialled in a day night first class fixture between Durham and the MCC in Abu Dhabi at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, under floodlights. Durham ran out winners by 311 runs with Kyle Coetzer top scoring on 171 backed up by 131 from Michael Di Venuto & would later play under similar circumstances again in 2014.
It was then used the following year as Rahul Dravid scored a century for the MCC against Nottinghamshire in the Champion County fixture in Abu Dhabi.
At the end of the 2011, the pink ball took a step closer to the domestic county game as it was trialled in Kent’s Division Two home game at Canterbury against Glamorgan, with the visitors winning by eight wickets.
And it appeared again on these shores last year during a Second XI match between Warwickshire & Worcestershire at Edgbaston, the venue later announcing it would host England’s first day-night Test match in August 2017.
Following on from previous years, the MCC game against Middlesex this season was played with a pink Dukes ball as Middlesex narrowly edged home by one wicket.