New Delhi: Ahead of the start of the first T20I match between India and South Africa at Durban on Friday, the Indian national anthem ‘Jana Gana Mana’ was interrupted twice before being played again. It is a routine followed before the start of every cricket match that the national anthems of both playing nations are played before the start of play.
The Indian national anthem was played at first and it suddenly stopped. Few moments after, it turned on again and then stopped again. This irritated the Indian crowd present in the stadium which did not expect this to happen. Something of this sort does not happen often on the cricketing field so it was altogether a new thing. However, the Indian cricket team was undeterred by this and kept singing the anthem despite it being stopped midway.
Here’s the video
Technical issues while playing India national anthem at South Africa #INDvSA pic.twitter.com/zERCrEi3DV
— Mr.Perfect 🗿 (@gotnochills007) November 8, 2024
Why did this happen?
According to some reports, it was some technical error that caused this to happen. The audio box was reset and the anthem was restarted again. The Indian team player and the Indian crowd present sang the national anthem again after being started. This error happened because of some mistake but the Indian players like Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh, and Suryakumar had a grin on their face while singing the song again and were all smiles.
Meanwhile, hosts South Africa won the toss and decided to field first in the series opener against India. While India did not give a call-up to anyone and continued with their core group, South Africa handed debut to one player – Andile Simelane.
Playing XIs
South Africa: Ryan Rickelton, Aiden Markram(c), Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen(w), David Miller, Patrick Kruger, Marco Jansen, Andile Simelane, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Nqabayomzi Peter
India: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson(w), Suryakumar Yadav(c), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan
India vs South Africa 1st T20I: The Indian national anthem stopped twice before being played again in Durban but the Indian players continued to sing it. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
