By Qaiser Mohammad Ali, IANS
Bangalore : High drama was enacted in the closing stages of the fifth and final day of the third India-Pakistan Test as someone erroneously switched on the floodlights at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here after bad light stopped play Wednesday.
The mistake – on part of someone who was obviously not familiar with the playing conditions of the three-Test series — forced the third umpire G.A. Pratapkumar rush down from his third-storey room to switch off the lights.
“How can they switch on the lights? How can they switch on the lights?” he was heard repeating as he hurriedly ran down the staircase from his room in the clubhouse end.
Pakistan were 162 for seven and struggling to save the match when the ground umpires Simon Taufel of Australia and Rudi Koertzen of South Africa stopped play, when dark clouds hovered over the stadium. Mohammed Yousuf (10) and Mohammed Sami (4) were at the crease when play was stopped, with 12 overs remaining.
After about 10 minutes the lights were finally switched off. But the match could not be started, as the natural light did not get better. The umpires decided that it would not get any better and the match was eventually drawn with India winning the series 1-0.