Irate cricket fans have blasted Kayo after several technical glitches meant those watching Australia’s Test match against South Africa could only see ads.

Just as the Proteas were starting their second innings at Newlands in Cape Town, fans began reporting that the stream wasn’t showing the cricket and was instead stuck on unskippable advertising.

Kayo, through Foxtel, is the only place in Australia where fans can watch the series and considering one of the service’s main selling points is “coverage with no ad-breaks during live play for major sports like the AFL, NRL, and cricket”, fans were left fuming.

One X, formerly Twitter, account labelled the glitch a “circus”.

“It’s kayosports being kayosports - game is happening while kayo subscribers have been watching ads for the last 20 minutes. Complete circus,” the customer wrote.

An account using the name Philip wrote: “Why the f*** do I pay for kayo sports only for them to f*** up and constantly play ads during live play!!!!!”

Kayo costs $45.99 for the premium package or $29.99 for the basic package.

Some accounts labelled the problems “absolutely disgraceful”, with some people getting 10 seconds of play between ads and others nothing but the waiting screen.

Multiple fans reported missing the first wicket of the second innings as Australia dismissed key South African batsman Aiden Markram for one after ending their first dig with a 100-run advantage, while others also missed the second.

Fans jumped onto Facebook to savage Kayo, posting highlights while their streams were down.

“Yeah, the Kayo hold screen was going for 30 min; I missed the first 2 wickets and now just adds wtf is going on,” Scott Martin wrote.

Kayo had not acknowledged the issues at the time of writing.