NEW DELHI: On the first day of the second day-night Test in Adelaide, the floodlights surprisingly went off twice, bringing the India vs Australia game to a halt for around 15 minutes.
Late on the opening day when Aussie batters Nathan McSweeney and Marnus Labuschagne were at the crease, the floodlight fiasco happened and fingers were pointed at Nathan Lyon that he brought the lights down.
The Australian veteran off-spinner on Saturday cleared the air over the drama and took the blame for causing the unexpected halt in the second Test.
Lyon clarified that as he was the nightwatchman and had to come in next, he went to the practice nets hoping to get a knocking session when the guard mistakenly hit the wrong switch twice after being asked to turn on the light.
“I couldn’t believe that. I was actually with our assistant coach ‘Boro’, sitting out there in the dark and the security guard asked us, and we said, ‘If you could put the lights on that’d be great, I need all the help I can get ‘. Then the next minute it went off,” Lyon told 7Cricket.
“I literally said to Boro, ‘I reckon he’s hit the wrong switch’. We sat out in the dark there for about 15 minutes waiting to have a hit.
“I’ll take that one, getting blamed for someone not knowing how to turn the lights on,” he added.
Australia went on to beat India in that game by 10 wickets inside 7 sessions and drew the series level at 1-all.
On Saturday, the opening day of the third Test got washed out due to rain as only 13.2 overs of play was possible.
After India skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bowl, a watchful opening pair of Usman Khawaja and Nathan McSweeney negotiated the tough period under dark skies as Australia scored 28 for no loss.