India's pink-ball debut hit by floodlight failure

India's experiment with the pink ball in the Duleep Trophy domestic championship suffered a setback after a floodlight failure interrupted play for more than an hour in the day-night match on Tuesday.

The Duleep Trophy, a four-day triangular competition which traditionally heralds the start of the Indian cricket season, is being viewed as a precursor to day-night Tests in cricket's biggest market.

But the first match on the outskirts of the capital New Delhi witnessed three of the six light towers go out twice in the post-dinner session, forcing the players to leave the field.

The first interruption happened just after the dinner interval when play was delayed by 17 minutes due to insufficient light while the second break stretched to about 50 minutes.

Play carried on well past 9pm, the original time for end of play, as 17 wickets fell on the opening day.

"There was some problem in the main electrical circuit of the floodlights, which was tripping," a ground official told AFP.

Earlier the players taking part in Tuesday's match, between teams that have been rebranded India Red and India Green, were excited at the prospect of the longest format of the game also being played after dark in India.

"I think it is pretty exciting and something to look forward to," said veteran Yuvraj Singh, who has enjoyed great success for the national team under lights in ODI and T20 cricket.

"The New Zealand-Australia Test match (the first day-night Test played in Adelaide last year) I saw was pretty exciting. The ball was swinging a bit much. It will be challenging if it swings a lot, playing under lights."

Suresh Raina, the captain of India Green who is trying to force his way back into the Indian team, was similarly enthusiastic.

"The Duleep Trophy has not been played with the pink ball before and it's a good challenge," he said.

"All the boys are keen (to perform) and this is a good platform ahead of the season."

Yuvraj's India Red won the toss and chose to bat first in the afternoon in front of a cheering crowd who had filed in to watch a piece of cricketing history.

"It's a novel idea," Rajeev Tyagi, one of the ground's administrators, told AFP before the floodlight failure.

"Local people are eager to watch the pink ball game under lights. We are just hoping that all goes well."

It was action-packed opening day with Yuvraj's India Red bowled out for just 161 before they reduced India Green to 7-116 at stumps in reply.

India Red batsman Abhinav Mukund, who top scored with 77, said he had trouble seeing the ball in pre-match training sessions but had no such issues in the match itself.

"I was timing the ball well personally," he said.

"I couldn't sight it quite well in the nets yesterday, but today was better and it was a good experience.

"To be honest, I didn't have much of a problem (seing the ball) today. I thought I was timing the ball and getting into good positions.

"The ball was holding on to the wicket sometimes, sometimes (it was) skidding on. It's a new experience.

"We don't play with the Kookaburra in domestic cricket; it's a new experience for a lot of cricketers."

India had been expected to stage their first day-night Test during a tour by New Zealand starting next month, but the plans were shelved to give more time for trials of the pink Kookaburra ball at domestic level.

The Australia-New Zealand match is the only Test so far to have been played under lights, with two more pink-ball Tests looked in for the coming Australian summer.

India, who have just been toppled by Pakistan at the top of the rankings, are about to embark on an extensive round of Test match cricket by hosting series against New Zealand, England, Bangladesh and Australia.

While India's ODI and T20 matches are usually played in front of packed houses, Tests are only rarely sold out.