Toss, lunch, tea, stumps (end of day’s play) … is the usual sequence in Test matches. But it’s about to be upturned in the second Test match between India and South Africa to be played in Guwahati from November 22. For the first time, the players will have a tea break first, before lunch. It’s due to the early sunrise and sunset in the eastern part of the country.
The first session of the Test at the Barsapara stadium will be from 9 am to 11 am, followed by Tea session from 11 am to 11:20 am. The second session will be played from 11:20 am to 1:20 PM. The lunch break will be from 1:20 PM to 2 PM while the third session of the play will be played from 2 PM to 4 pm.
“The reason to have early tea is because Guwahati witnesses early sunset and there is early start too. This will be the first time we have decided to change the Tea session as time will be saved to get extra game time on the field,” a source in the board confirmed to this newspaper.
Traditionally, the Test matches start at 9:30 am in India. A 40 minutes lunch break (11:30 to 12:10 PM) followed by resumption of second sessions. Both the teams undergo a 20 minutes tea break (2:10 PM to 2:30 PM) followed by a third session from 2:30 to 4:30 PM. The match officials can provide extra time of half an hour to allow the team to complete 90 overs per day. The game start time can vary country to country like England begins their Test match at 11 am as they have long days in their summers. However, most of the team follows the traditional lunch-tea breaks during the Test matches.
Cricket South Africa and BCCI both have decided to change their session timing. In the past BCCI has changed their session timing in its Ranji Trophy games to factor in the early sunset situation.
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