New Delhi: The ongoing one-off Test match, which is being played between the subcontinent’s two competitive teams Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, recently came to a halt after an unwelcomed guest entered the ground during the game’s second day.
The bizarre incident occurred in the 48th over of Sri Lanka’s 1st innings when a huge monitor lizard crawled its way into the Colombo cricket stadium’s field & started walking near the boundary ropes. Later, as the umpires, cricketers & groundsmen spotted the reptile, the play was stopped for a while and was only resumed when the creature went off the field.
A video of the unexpected interruption caused by the Monitor Lizard was later shared by its broadcast partner SonyLiv who took to its Twitter and wrote, “We had an uninvited guest on the field today.”
Watch it here:
We had an uninvited guest on the field today 🦎😄#SonySportsNetwork #SLvAFG pic.twitter.com/1LvDkLmXij
— Sony Sports Network (@SonySportsNetwk) February 3, 2024
It is worth mentioning here that this was not the only instance when a cricket match in Sri Lanka got interrupted due to a reptile making its way to the cricket ground. On numerous occasions in the past as well, the Island Nation has witnessed snakes & other reptiles getting inside the field and causing delays in the game.
Matthews & Chandimal’s centuries puts Sri Lanka in driving seat
Meanwhile, Afghan batsmen failed to pull out any remarkable performance in their first-ever test match vs Sri Lanka & got bundled out on a naive score of 198 runs on Day 1 itself. In Return, Sri Lankan batters went all guns blazing against the Afghans, smashing them from left, right & middle to put a towering total of 369 runs (at the moment) at the loss of just 3 wickets.
The biggest contribution from the Lankan batting side came from the bats of their two most experienced cricketers Angelo Matthews & Dinesh Chandimal who both smashed remarkable centuries and are currently playing not out at their respective scores of 129 (226)* & 107 (175)*. Now, with the 2nd day’s play still underway, Sri Lanka, at the moment, is in a comfortable position with a massive 180-run lead over the visiting team.
