After defeating Australia at their home, the Indian cricket team is the currently locking horns with New Zealand in the series opener of the 5-match series at the McLean Park, in Napier. The veteran Indian fast bowler, Mohammed Shami made early inroads for India as he dismissed both the Kiwi openers under first five overs which helped the team to bundle out the Blackcaps for a meager total of 157. However, during India’s chase umpires had to stop the game because the sun was in the batsman’s eye as complained by the Indian opener, Shikhar Dhawan.
Ten overs into India’s chase, only one over after the dinner break, the play was stopped for more than half an hour in the Napier ODI because of the sun. The setting sun was at an awkward angle and straight in the batsmen’s eye.
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McLean Park has a previous for it with the angle of the sun at around 7 pm making it difficult for the batsmen to spot the ball. Two years ago, a Twenty20 international between Bangladesh and England was held up because of the same issue. Earlier this year on January 19, a Super smash match between Central Districts and Canterbury was also stopped for a while at the same venue. The organisers were actually hoping for some cloud cover during the ODI between India and New Zealand.
A situation like this doesn’t occur at other stadiums in the world because, the pitch at the McLean Park is in the north to south direction but the sun rises in the north-east direction in New Zealand, so it can be termed as the error from the architect. Target for the Indian team has now been revised to 156 in 49 overs instead of 158 in 50 overs.
Talking about the situation during the break, the umpire said, “The setting sun is the eyes of the players and we need to think of the safety of the players as well as umpires. There was an awareness of it by the players [ they didn’t appeal]. The good news is we have an extra 30 minutes, so we should be back in 30 minutes and it will still be a 50-overs match.”
Here is the video of the same:
https://twitter.com/videos_shots/status/1087965399159840768
However, twitterati was amused after the unusual turns of events as it isn’t quite often that a game gets stopped due to the sun. Here are some of the reactions:
How Great is the level of IQ of the person who built the McLean Park stadium in Napier. Preparing the pitch East-West has to be avoided. Seriously man! #SunStopsPlay #NZvIND #INDvNZ
— Aditya Hare Krishna (NOT a PART of MODI PARIVAR) (@adityaharekrsna) January 23, 2019
Poor old Napier cricket fans. The last few years have been beyond silly. #NZvInd https://t.co/StBQORuMSP
— Hamish Neal (@hamishneal) January 23, 2019
Don't count a good sunset as bad weather!! ☝️😉#NZvIND #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/614Qip04Ab
— Surender Bisht (@suribisht1991) January 23, 2019
Have you ever seen 'Sun stops play' ? Cricket is a game of Weather and disappointments #NZvIND
— Desh Bhakt🫡 (@Bharatwasi_101) January 23, 2019
https://twitter.com/RoshanKrRai/status/1087965871207866369
First time I'm seeing, Sunset stops play. #NZvIND
— Zaman #FreePalestine 🇵🇸 (@ZamanX90) January 23, 2019
https://twitter.com/anukuldas1800/status/1087965829696798720
1st time Sun Raha Hun ke #duetosunoutrage #NZvIND #match got delayed..
Yeh #rain Suna that Abhi #sun bhi…There is one sun @imVkohli on field…
Is due to him play is stop..#TeamIndia will win #today@BCCI@sachin_rt #NZLvIND #NZvsIND @msdhoni #ViratKohli #HardikPandya— Pravin Daki (@pravindaki) January 23, 2019
New problem, once the sun sets the blood moon is going to cause a major issue too… #NZvInd
— Innocent Bystander (@InnoBystander) January 23, 2019
pitch is in the north to south direction but sun rises in north-east direction in New zealand , so they made the error. thats why left-hand batsmen will face sun (like dhawan did) pitch shud have made in north-west to south-east direction #NZvIND
— I Tweet Stuffs (@KhabriBiggstFan) January 23, 2019
