Watch: India and Pakistan players attacked during Live Women's World Cup match, play halted

The ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2025 match between India Women's National Cricket Team and Pakistan Women's National Cricket Team was halted due to a bizarre incident.

India Women and Pakistan Women were forced to leave the field after the bugs made life tough for the players and umpires during the match, and fumigation took place in the middle.

A swarm of flies attacks the India-Pakistan players mid-match, umpires forced to halt play

Harmanpreet Kaur-led India and Fatima Sana-led Pakistan are locking horns with each other in the high-voltage match of the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2025 at the R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, on Sunday, October 5.

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A couple of massive incidents unfolded even before the first ball was bowled in the match. At the toss, Harmanpreet flipped the coin and Fatima called Tails.

However, to everyone's surprise, Mel Jones and the match referee thought she said heads, and as it came as heads, Pakistan won the toss. The Pakistan skipper also didn't offer any clarification and simply accepted the result.

Then, after a chat with Mel Jones, Fatima Sana simply walked back to her dugout without acknowledging Harmanpreet Kaur, who was in no mood to shake hands with the Pakistani counterpart.

Meanwhile, India have struggled after being put in to bat first and they have not been able to accelerate the innings. During the innings, a bizarre incident happened that led to the match being halted for around 15 minutes.

A lot of bugs/ flies/ insects invaded the ground and halted the play just after the 34th over. This happened because of the rain around in Colombo.

Meanwhile, fumigation took place in the middle, and pest control spray was used to clear the ground.

Watch: Insects attack India-Pakistan match,

Well this is a new one... insects stop play at the cricket while fumigation takes play out in the middle! 🦗 pic.twitter.com/7oda5XJUAI

— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) October 5, 2025

The area of focus is cricket - Aavishkar Salvi

The Asia Cup 2025 was filled with controversies involving India and Pakistan, and similar issues were expected to happen when the two teams faced off in the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2025. However, speaking ahead of the match, India bowling coach Aavishkar Salvi said their focus is only on the cricket. He said:

"The area of focus is cricket.We want our girls to bring that 'A' game to the day. We want them to take it just as a game, because the World Cup is a long campaign. It's a long campaign - there will be a lot of games coming up."

Meanwhile, Pakistan Women's captain Fatima Sana also dropped remarks along similar lines, saying that they are not focused on outside noise.

"We have great relationships with all other teams, and we try and keep good relations with everyone," Sana said a day ahead of the match against India. "We'll try to do everything within the spirit of the game.

"Those pictures in the past with everyone mingling with each other around Bismah's daughter - those scenes look good and everyone enjoys seeing that. But, of course, our focus has to be on what we're here for - to play.

"We're like a family of 20-22 people here," Sana said of the Pakistan team environment. "We don't really worry about what's going on outside our bubble. We get to hear about things happening external to cricket, but we focus on our game. The World Cup is something every player waits for, so we just want to focus on the thing we've come here for."

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