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Cricket match held up by snake on pitch

A snake on the outfield delayed the start of a cricket match in India.

The new season of the Ranji Trophy, a domestic first-class competition, was getting under way around the country on Monday but the match between Andhra and Vidarbha in Vijayawada was held up for an unusual reason.

Footage posted on Twitter by the BCCI showed the players waiting around as a snake slithered through the outfield before play had got under way.

Vidarbha, who won the toss, were in the field and their players could be seen attempting to shoo the intruder off the surface.

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Players and umpires hit the deck when bees swarmed during a World Cup match earlier this year (Owen Humphreys/PA)

When the snake eventually left, defending champions Vidarbha took up where they left off last season, reducing the hosts to 163 for six at tea.

The snake was not the first unwanted intruder to hold up a cricket match this year – in June a World Cup match between Sri Lanka and South Africa in Durham was halted because of a swarm of bees.

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