Australian batter Steven Smith stopped the play citing a bizarre reason for distraction during Day 3 of the ongoing Test match against Pakistan at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Friday. While interruptions for distraction in the sight screen is common, Smith took it to the next level when he brought the match proceedings to a halt for an extended period over a tiny black spot on the screen, suggesting that it was affecting his vision and concentration. The incident happened moments before the 71st over of the match.
The play had to be halted stopped for longer period of time than usual sightscreen related delays as the information was first sent to the groundsmen who had to manually reach the object with much difficulty to remove it and get the match underway. The video of the same has surfaced on social media.
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Take a look at it here:
Commentators Left In Splits
As one would imagine, the commentators were left in splits following the bizarre incident.
"You think you’ve seen everything," Ian Smith said on air, chuckling.
"Surely it’s not that little thing there, surely not," former England captain Michael Vaughan said on broadcast.
Talking about the match, Australia are all set for a 3-0 clean sweep in the series. While they had won the first Two tests, they are closing in a win at the SCG having reduced Pakistan to 68/7 in their second innings with Josh Hazlewood scalping 4 wickets for 9 runs. Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon and Travis Head scalped a wicket each. In the first innings, Pakistan had scored 313 with Mohammed Rizwan and Aamir Jamal scoring 80s while Australia had responded 299. At Stumps On Day 3, Pakistan lead by 82 runs.