But the blackness would increase tenfold inside the Kaiser Sports Club pavilion when after several minutes, Brian Lara's side was declared winners of this Red Stripe Bowl semi-final on a faster scoring rate. Heated debate and the threat of a protest from the Leeward Islands manager Carlisle Powell followed match referee Hugh Perry's belated announcement.
``I'm not sure that we lost at all. All we can try to do is get the gentleman's attention to the formula.''
This game of some good competitive cricket was finally contentiously decided by one of two formulas. Add to this the tale of funny figures the outrageous show of temper by Curtly Ambrose and you can call this one Confusion at Kaiser!
The main trouble came in the interpretation of the rules.
The method used by Perry and the one that inspired the T&T decision to accept bad light is found in Appendix A of the tournament rules, where according to a target Score Calculation Chart, T&T needed 136 after 32 overs which amounted to 79.1 percent of the Leewards' total at that stage.
But the contention of the Leewards, the now dethroned champions, is that the formula is invalid since the game was reduced to 41 overs, in which case the mathematical formula should have been used. By that calculation, T&T would have been behind and out.
But not even the uproar caused by the mathematical complexities matched the shocking spectacle of Ambrose, all six feet seven inches of him, marching over to diminutive square-leg umpire Thomas Wilson of Jamaica and, like a pit bull, laying into the dumbfounded official an angry, extended earful after he had signalled no-ball for a short ball the Antiguan giant had bowled at Lara.
All of this happened in the full view of Michael Findlay and his West Indies selection panel, West Indies Board president Pat Rousseau and West Indies manager Clive Lloyd.
It was an ugly moment that soured Ambrose's keen duel with Lara, one which enthralled the small but enthusiastic crowd spread around this tidy, mountain-fringed north coast ground. That episode detracted from a contest in which the Trinis showed character.
When Leewards skipper Stuart Williams (54, nine fours) was taking advantage of the wayward T&T opening attack at 100 for one in the 20th over, the Leewards were sailing until they were snagged by the spin of Ken Hazel (2/25) and the stingy Dinanath Ramnarine (3/18, eight overs). In the end the spirited Trinis limited the Leewards to 72 off the remaining 21 overs.
The end looked nowhere near possible at the beginning. After persistent drizzles reduced the game to 41 overs, Williams, ever conscious of his team's disadvantageous net run rate situation, took the lead, attractively punishing some disappointing bowling by Ian Bishop and Mervyn Dillon.
Given the width he relishes, Williams brightened the dull day with two exquisite shots, a geometrically perfect square-cut that bisected gully and point in Bishop's costly second over.
Then for the eighth of his nine boundaries came the most sweetly timed extra-cover drive in Mervyn Dillon's final over.
But the long-suffering Bishop returned to stop him, juggling a return catch before finally pouching it.
The captain departed at 108 for 2 in the 20th over. And by the 23rd, he had been joined by three others. Lara at short cover made Sylvester Joeseph pay for a careless drive off Bishop and then left-arm spinner Hazel fazed the maroons with two wickets in three balls. First Dave Joseph helplessly gloved a ball that popped on him to wicketkeeper David Williams. And then impatient Arthurton holed out to long-on.
The rapid successes triggered by Hazel's controlled bowling, like the wind wafting in from Discovery Bay, put win afresh in the T&T sails. So did the later wickets of Runako Morton and Hamesh Anthony, victims of Dinanath Ramnarine (second ball ) and Simmons. The score then was 126, with 11 left.
Dangerous Jacobs (29), with a four and six in succession off Simmons, and allrounder Anton Lake (18) staged a mini-recovery with an eighth wicket stand of 29.
But by the time Ramnarine (3/17) bowled the last over, the damage had not been repaired.
And even when a sharp Ambrose break-back removed Andr‚ Lawrence with the third ball of the T&T innings, Suruj Ragoonath (39, seven fours, 50 balls) discovered his better form, pulling confidently off Ambrose and Benjamin.
In partnership with level-headed Daren Ganga (44), he added a stabilising 69 in 15 overs.
Then when ``Ragoo'' lost concentration and was stumped by Ridley Jacobs off Anton Lake, a no-nonsense Lara kept the momentum going with 41 off 38 balls including an almost effortless straightish pull off Benjamin that landed in the pavilion.
But when the skipper, having survived ``Hurricane'' Ambrose, was bowled by medium pacer Wilden Cornwall trying for quick runs under the blackening sky, the innings hit a slump, going from136 for three to 137 for five. Ganga was run out in the next over (31st) and Simmons following soon afterwards.
Then came the umpires offer and the Discovery Day Disaster for the Leewards.
``The main thing is that we are playing on Monday,'' a subdued Lara said after all the talk. ``We've got to put today behind us.'' He will hope, once the present result stands, to see Kaiser's blue confusion replaced by red, white and black celebration at Guyana's expense tomorrow.