The twilight zone: Sussex's batters walk off into the gloaming © Getty Images

Dylan Thomas may not have been thinking of cricket when we he waxed poetic about raging against the dying of the light, but he may as well have done - what is Test cricket if not racing sundown and fighting to see another morning? Thomas would have approved equally of the chiaroscuro pictures that particular phenomenon produces - like the one above of Sussex's Fynn Husdon-Prentice and Henry Crocombe leaving the field at the end of day's play with only a sliver of sunlight left.

Shade is as much a prerequisite of cricket as light - just ask the crowds sitting out five days of a Test match in the Indian summer. Tickets for matches in the subcontinent are purchased with one eye on which stands will maximise cover during playing hours.

Ray ban: the sun struggles to break through the stands at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad Michael Steele / © Getty Images

No one told Phil Tufnell and Jonathan Agnew they'd need peaked caps to keep the glare away in the commentary box, forcing them to improvise.

Talking through your hat: flyers do some heavy lifting in the commentary box © Getty Images

Late-evening sun also adds some extra drama to the match with its interplay of light and shadow. Below Issy Wong finds herself in an unexpected spotlight.

There's the light side, and there's the Wong side © Getty Images

Sometimes the lack of shadow is the drama. On Zero Shadow Day, or the more romantic Lahaina Noon, the tropics experience a few shadowless minutes when the sun is at its zenith - and the result is mildly nonplussing.

Noonlighting: it's sun o'clock on the maidans of Mumbai © Getty Images

The job of floodlights in a stadium is to eliminate shadows as much as possible, but what do you do when the floodlight is the shadow?

Shade on you: Will Rhodes loses his off stump in the dark © Getty Images

Floodlights are probably the least noticed feature of a ground but England really know how to have fun with them. At Headingley they're shaped like Yorkshire's White Rose, while Edgbaston's take the shape of an "e". The effect is not a little Pac-Man.

E-luminati: the alternative to an I in the sky © Getty Images

Is it a bird? Is it a player? Is it Andrew Strauss? It's actually two shadowgraphy artists attempting to create Sourav Ganguly's silhouette with their hands. Success?

Prince of darkness: a long shadow casts Ganguly Deshakalyan Chowdhury / © AFP/Getty Images

When you're playing tape-ball cricket in the streets, you'll take what light you can get, be it from street lamps, the headlights of passing vehicles, or jerry-rigged halogen lamps.

Shine on: a tape-ball player on the streets of Karachi strikes a dramatic pose Asif Hassan / © AFP/Getty Images

In India, lights also have smog to contend with. In the picture below, Eden Gardens tests out its lighting as smog drapes the ground two days before the 2023 World Cup semi-final.

Lights in white satin: Eden Gardens' floodlights wear a veil of smog Debajyoti Chakraborty / © NurPhoto/Getty Images

Floodlight failure? No problem, the stumps will guide you home at the CPL.

It's lit, fam: Nicholas Pooran and Andre Russell navigate by stumplight © CPL T20 via Getty Images

Deepti Unni is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

 

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