Power outage at Eden halts KKR-Sunrisers game

There was a power failure during Kolkata Knight Riders' (KKR) opening IPL fixture against Sunrisers Hyderabad as one of the floodlights tripped following a short circuit.

It took 12 minutes to restore some of the lights at the tower over the electronic scoreboard. Nitish Rana who was batting on 68 blamed his dismissal on the power outage.

"I didn't know this could happen. My gameplan got interrupted. I lost my momentum when I came to dressing room. The atmosphere also became a bit relaxed. I got into the shell because of the break or would have finished the match," Rana said at the post-match news conference.

With Sunil Narine suffering a finger injury while fielding, Rana was promoted to open and kept them in the chase, only to be dismissed LBW by Rashid Khan in the first ball he faced after the break.

"It was an eventuality that was addressed instantly and got rectified. The agency appointed by CAB had done routine check and also issued a certificate. We would re-conduct a thorough check ahead of the next game to prevent its recurrence," Cricket Association of Bengal joint-secretary Avishek Dalmiya told IANS.

According to an official statement from the agency that controls the operation, one of the contractors suffered short-circuit in the E-Block Tower.

"There are 131 contractor in E Block Tower for switching on 131 M Halide Lamps. Unfortunately, contractor bearing No 1-8 of phase RB-1 suffered short circuit, which tripped the MCB system causing the problem.

"The matter was identified and corrective action was taken immediately and the system returned to normal," the statement said.

In the past, the Eden Gardens had several instances of power failure. The last time it happened was during a match between New Zealand and Bangladesh in the World Twenty20 in 2016.

The fourth ODI between India and Sri Lanka on December 24, 2009 was also halted for m23 minutes due to power outage. Power went out in an IPL match between Deccan Chargers and KKR in 2008.

--IANS

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