Adelaide Oval plunged into darkness as light towers go out during second Test between Australia and India

Samantha Rogers
The West Australian
The Australian pace star trapped Yashasvi Jaiswal lbw to open the Adelaide Test.

Adelaide Oval was plunged into darkness during the day-night Test between Australia and India, causing play to be momentarily halted at the iconic venue.

All four light towers momentarily switched off with Marnus Labuschagne and Nathan McSweeney at the crease on Friday, having bowled the visitors out for 180 in the first innings.

The lights came back on after less than a minute, with play resuming, before a second power outage caused another delay.

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The second outage lasted over a minute with fans at the stadium holding up the torches on their phones.

Play resumed moments after the light towers were switched back on.

“We had a brief internal switching issue that was quickly identified and rectified,” a statement from the venue’s management read.

Former Australian cricket umpire Simon Tauful said it would have been “very frustrating” for players and on-field umpires alike.

“They will be having their concentration and routines broken like everyone else and having to refocus and get back on the job as quickly as possible,” he told Seven.

“The match referee will be busy on his phone to the ground authorities to try to sort out what is going on and get some stability back into the contest.”

Adelaide Oval was plunged into darkness during the day-night Test between Australia and India on Friday, causing play to be momentarily halted at the iconic venue. 
Adelaide Oval was plunged into darkness during the day-night Test between Australia and India on Friday, causing play to be momentarily halted at the iconic venue.  Credit: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Asked what happen if the lights were to go out mid-delivery, Taufel said it would be up to the umpires to make that call.

“The umpires will be the sole judge of whether that’s a fair contest in that particular situation... I would expect them to call it a dead ball under those circumstances,” he said.

Play resumed as normal following the outages with no further interruptions.

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