Cape Town: Every dog has its day -- goes the old adage and a black canine literally lived up to it at the Indian Premier League opener, bringing the proceedings to a standstill for more than 10 minutes while dodging the ground staff with amazing athleticism.
Just a little more than six overs into the match between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians, the dog walked in, without anybody apparently noticing, and positioned itself next to Chennai skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni behind the wickets.
Dhoni tried to shoo away the animal but much to the spectators' amusement and groundstaff's amazement, it continued to run around freely prompting one of commentators to say, "Why can't the ICC have a dog's committee to manage such situations? They anyway have so many committees."
A member of the groundstaff dived full stretch to grab the unwanted guest but as it turned out, the invader had better reflexes and dodged the attempt to get another round of applause from the crowd.
Chennai Super Kings pacer Manpreet Gony offered the match ball to lure the canine out of the ground but, disinterested, the animal walked back to the middle.
Mumbai Indians fielding coach Jonty Rhodes, who was being interviewed during the incident, joked, "That's not my dog out there."
The groundstaff cordoned the dog but much to their exasperation it still wouldn't head to the exit.
Finally, some food was brought in for the apparently hungry dog even as players chatted away the idle minutes.
The animal was off to another sprint after eating a few loafes of what seemed like bread and finally ran into the stands just as it had entered bringing the drama to an end.
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