Ranji Trophy 2019-20: Snake Delays Start of the Game Between Vidarbha and Andhra

You might have seen several reasons for a game to stop such as dogs, cats, even chickens on the ground. But there are hardly few heard where the game was delayed by a snake. The incident occurred during the game between Vidarbha and hosts Andhra at the Dr. Gokaraju Liala Gangaaraju ACA Cricket Ground, Vijayawada during the opening day of the Ranji Trophy 2019-20 season.

BCCI’s domestic twitter handle posted the video with the caption, “SNAKE STOPS PLAY! There was a visitor on the field to delay the start of the match”. In the video, it was seen that the ground staffs were hovering near the snake, trying their best to make the snake out of the ground. The Vidarbha-Andhra match is being telecast live on Star Sports 2.

However, this was not the first time a snake has halted play in a Ranji Trophy match featuring Vidarbha. In 2015, the match between Bengal and Vidarbha at the JU campus in Salt Lake, Kolkata was also halted for a long time after a snake was spotted on the ground.

Surprisingly, two years ago, the play was stopped during the Ranji Trophy because someone drove a car into the ground during a game between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh at the Palam Air Force Ground. The players like Ishant Sharma, Gautam Gambhir and Rishabh Pant were featured in the game.

In the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, a swarm of bees stopped play between South Africa and Sri Lanka game. Players from both teams and the umpires had to lie down on the ground to avoid being stung. However, the game started after some time.

In Vijaywada, after the snake was safely removed from the ground, Andhra captain and Team India’s regular face in Tests Hanuma Vihari led the team well after his side had been reduced to 59 for 3.