Durban: South African coach Mickey Arthur could be in trouble for venting his frustration over the loss of play during the third day of the second cricket Test against India here.

According to a match official, umpires Asad Rauf and Ian Howell have taken exception to Arthur's comments in which he virtually blamed them for offering light to the fielding side on the critical third evening of the match yesterday.

Arthur let out his frustration by making an issue on a number of things: one, that umpires, after they had resumed play once the troublesome power had been restored, went off the field suggesting to home captain Graeme Smith that fielding side could risk injury in gloomy light.

On the third day, at least 36 overs were lost due to bad light. Particularly frustrating was the final session when power failure first held up play for 46 minutes and when the game resumed, only eight balls were bowled before umpires ordered the game to be stopped.

South African coach's other issue was the number of balls which were changed during the day as well the occasions when doctor from the dressing room kept running to the ground to attend to Indian players. He also objected to a particular occasion when a ball-change took almost 20 minutes.

"It is ridiculous to make such a comment. Umpires keep record of ball changes and at no stage 20 minutes were lost because of it  this is almost equal to losing six overs during the day. That's not true," said the match official on condition of anonymity.