In an unusual event, a stray dog forced the umpires to call tea early at the end of the second session on day one of the second Test between India and England at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam (Vizag) on Thursday.
With four balls left in Stuart Broad’s ninth over, a dog was spotted running onto the field. Play was stopped as the players and umpires waited for the dog to be shooed off the ground.
A couple of the ground staff came onto the field to take the dog away, but weren’t successful. It was then that the on-field umpires decided that they had seen enough time being wasted and called for an early tea.
Chesteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli might not have been very pleased with the intervention as they were both batting in the 90s.
This is not the first time a dog has interrupted play at Vizag, with a similar scene appearing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) match between Rising Pune Supergiants and Delhi Daredevils earlier this year.
Here are some of the reactions from Twitter on the incident.
Was already turning into a dog of a day for England #INDvENG
— Andrew McGlashan (@andymcg_cricket) November 17, 2016
🐶stopped play...
— simon hughes (@theanalyst) November 17, 2016
Only in india....
Dog stops play. And refuses to leave the field. #IndvsEng
— Chetan Narula (@chetannarula) November 17, 2016
Sources: Dog came straight from a bank after standing in queue for hours.
— Saurabh Malhotra (@MalhotraSaurabh) November 17, 2016
Is the dog trending yet? #INDvENG
— Gaurav Kalra (@gauravkalra75) November 17, 2016
Reports that that hound has been unleashed from the England dressing room have been strenuously denied #IndvEng
— Andrew Miller (@miller_cricket) November 17, 2016
Dog has spent more time on the wicket than the entire Australian team #CruelIKnow #HadToSayIt https://t.co/pLWkJHydBi
— if Shrikant,who can? (@HomerOpines) November 17, 2016
And the dog already has a twitter account pic.twitter.com/aKxpqIWkuZ
— Elizabeth Ammon (@legsidelizzy) November 17, 2016
