Bad lighting can often put a damper on Test cricket. But what if bad floodlights were also hanging around the playing field, as it was during the India-Australia pink-ball Test in Adelaide on Friday?
Australia were pushing hard to contain the new ball attack of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Siraj as the match entered the twilight stages after the hosts bowled India out for 180 runs. After losing opener Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney and Marnus Labuschran provided a strong guard for Australia.
However, in the 18th over bowled by Harshit Rana, the floodlights went off twice, due to which the entire ground was plunged into darkness and the match was halted. The beaming lights were first switched on at the 17.2 over mark and switched back almost immediately. However, two balls later, the field turned dark again as Indian slip-fielders including captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant gathered to resume play.
Same pink ball floodlight failure
However, this is not the first time that the profile of a 22-match old pink-ball Test has had to stop when the floodlights fail.
During the use of the pink ball in the Duleep Trophy in 2016, a floodlight failure in the first league match in Greater Noida halted play for over an hour. The game witnessed three of the six light towers knock off twice in the final session, forcing the players to leave the field, before the game resumed and went to 9 p.m.