The bad-light saga regarding the interruption of Test matches is once again hitting the headlines. On Friday, the second Test between Pakistan and New Zealand was placed on a knife’s edge when cloudy conditions at Karachi’s National Stadium made the umpires end the final day before time.
With less than three overs remaining, Pakistan needed just 15 runs to reach the fourth-inning target of 319 runs, while the Kiwis needed a single wicket to clinch victory.
After the match ended in a draw and as did the two-match series, a couple of cricketers raised questions on the specific bad-light rule in red-ball cricket.
Ex-cricketer Scott Styris took to his personal Twitter handle and marked the event as a perfect demonstration of “why Test cricket is in trouble.” As noted by him, “Both teams had a chance of winning and we come off the field with 3 overs to go.”
The tweet caught the attention of New Zealand all-rounder Jimmy Neesham and he vented out his frustration too. The 32-year-old referred to the finish as “an absolute dog’s breakfast of a sport.” According to him, the match was leading to “a genuinely enthralling finish then this s**t happens.”
Moreover, Styris brought to light an explanation by former South African batter AB de Villiers. The Proteas legend penned, “Another little grey area in the rule book, in my opinion. If the fielding team is told to bowl spin because of bad light and they take the option, they should be forced to finish the overs with spin until the Umpires call it off because they can bring seam on at any time to finish the match.”
In reply, the former South Africa batter further suggested that the fielding side should be permitted to introduce a seamer if the batting side managed in bringing the target down to “5 or so runs required.”
Pakistan batter Sarfaraz Ahmed smashed a commendable century on the fifth day sparking their hopes of an unlikely victory – after four consecutive losses on home soil.
After Ahmed departed for 118 runs, Kiwis took control of the game as the Babar Azam-led unit were nine- down. But Naseem Shah was looking in a good rhythm and batting with much urgency. A few boundaries by the pacer turned the equation quite 50-50 and brought Pakistan back into the game. In the end, all these efforts went in vain as the low visibility issue led the umpires to remove the bails and call it a day.
Previously, on 4 January, a similar sort of situation transpired on the opening day of the Sydney Test between Australia and South Africa. The game was disrupted several times due to low-light conditions even though all the floodlights were turned on.
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That time, Aussie legend Steve Waugh expressed his dissatisfaction and penned a long note on his Instagram. He called for a modification in the particular rule as according to him, these situations certainly hamper the competitiveness of a Test match.
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