Rain and bad light delays are passé: Domestic red-ball matches in India were delayed on December 26 due to a solar eclipse.
State associations confirmed that the second day of most Ranji Trophy matches will be delayed from their usual starting time of 9.30 am on Thursday because of the eclipse, which will be visible through most parts of south India. As a result, only 75 overs will be bowled in the day.
The Tamil Nadu-Madhya Pradesh match was shifted to an 11.30 am start, with the first session continuing until 1 pm, with the next from 1.40 to 3.10 pm and the last one from 3.30 to 5.30 pm. The same was the case at Rajkot, where Saurashtra host Uttar Pradesh, and in Mumbai, where the hosts are playing Railways.
For the Mysuru match between Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh, the revised timings are: morning session 11.15 am to 12.00 pm, post-lunch session 12.40 pm to 3.10 pm, and post-tea session 3.30 to 5.30 pm.
Due to solar eclipse the second day’s play at Mysuru will begin at 11:15 am and light permitting the game will be extended till 5:30 pm. And the overs lost will be made up by early starts on day-3 and day-4 #RanjiTrophy #KARvHP
— Karnataka Ranji Team║ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ ರಣಜಿ ತಂಡ (@RanjiKarnataka) December 25, 2019
The partial solar eclipse began at 8.04 am local time, and continued till 11.05 am, with the maximum eclipse occurring at 9.26 am and ending at 9.27 am, turning the sun into a ‘ring of fire’.
This isn’t the first time that prominent cricket games have been affected by an eclipse. Almost 40 years ago, a Test match in Bombay also coincided with the phenomenon.
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The 1980 Jubilee Test between India and England to mark the golden jubilee of the BCCI saw the reserve day moved to the second day, with an 87 per cent solar eclipse believed to put spectators – reportedly 50,000 strong in number – at risk if they happened to look at the sun without protection. “It was an anticlimax,” wrote Bob Willis, according to ESPNcricinfo. “The sky only slightly darkened mid-afternoon.”
Not all games of the Ranji tournament on Thursday were affected though; Puducherry-Mizoram and Bengal-Andhra matches began at their usual time.
