The scene at the test match, played in the Indian city of Visakhapatnam, turned melodramatic as the ball raced for four runs through India's all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja's bat.
Commentators and crowd members guffawed as the perplexed South African fielders and ground staff struggled to spot the ball. They searched resultlessly under the rain-covers.
Eventually, a cameraman came to the rescue of the South African team; he zoomed in on the ball and projected its image on the giant LED screen, revealing its location, lodged between two wedges of boundary padding.
The discovery led to a wave of gleeful cheers from the anticipating crowd at the stadium.
SMG feat... pic.twitter.com/2XttnDtbEm
— Camerabazi (@camerabazi) October 3, 2019
Netizens were thrilled to watch the comic scene and took to Twitter with hilarious responses.
Fielders were like pic.twitter.com/Bl9A9xq5lA
— Joe (@joemonkishor) October 3, 2019
Yeah it's stuck in the barrier just pretend it's gone missing so I can get my breath back
— Billy Bamber (@billy_bamber_95) October 3, 2019
— Todd (@MrCTodd) October 3, 2019
Ball to South African players 😂 pic.twitter.com/BU2ABmpAcq
— Sneha🇮🇳 (@Shinde25sneha) October 3, 2019
South Africa trails by 349 on the third day of the test match, having reached 153/4 at the end of the first session of Friday’s play.