Five Weird Reasons Which Stopped Cricket Matches

The game of cricket has given the fans and its followers a lot of memories. But it has also provided some funny incidents which have temporarily halted the game. The latest one took place during the match against Sri Lanka and South Africa in the ICC World Cup 2019 at the Riverside Ground when a swarm of bees entered the ground to stop the play for a few minutes.

On this note, let us take a lot at the five weird reasons which stopped cricket matches:

Bee attack at Riverside Ground, Chester-le-Street

The ICC World Cup 2019 game between Sri Lanka and South Africa saw astonishing scenes and players of both sides and match officials lay flat on their stomach in the middle of the match.

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The incident took place during the 48th over of Sri Lanka’s innings when Chris Morris was bowling. Soon after Morris delivered the fifth ball of the over, a swarm of bees came across the ground stopping the game for some time.

The cricketers, along with the match officials, lied down on the ground soon after, and play resumed only it left the field.

Also read: Nike Reveals Team India’s Away Jersey For World Cup 2019

Nathan Lyon burns toasts, halts play

New South Wales’s Sheffield Shield match against Queensland in Australia was delayed by 30 minutes due to a fire alarm going off in the Stuart Law stand. Umpires had to suspend play because of the incident. The fire trucks arrived at the stadium in no time to diffuse the fire and also evacuated the stands.

Australian spinner Nathan Lyon, who plays for New South Wales, admitted later that it was his attempts at preparing a toast that caused the alarm. Meanwhile, it didn’t stop his side from winning as New South Wales quickly scored the 18 runs after the authorities gave a green signal to resume the match.

Also read: Top 10 Instances When Players Showed Great Sportsmanship

Car halts play in Ranji Trophy

An unimaginable turn of events occurred during the 2017 Ranji Trophy. Delhi was playing a game against Uttar Pradesh at the Palam Air Force Ground when a car drove straight to ground in the absence of proper security thus halting the game.

The man identified himself as Girish Sharma tried to swerve his car twice on the 22-yard strip before stopping. The officials; however, was quick to take actions against the intruder and hand him to the police who later admitted that he panicked and it was an honest mistake.

The game featured international players like Ishant Sharma, Gautam Gambhir and Rishabh Pant who were fielding for Delhi at that point of time.

Sunstrike stops play

Rain often disrupts cricket, but in New Zealand, it was the sun that forced players off the field earlier this year during an ODI against India at Napier. Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan got a welcome break during the chase from the scorching heat at the ground.

The low angle of the sun hitting the Napier wicket was too much for batsmen, fielders and umpires, and senior umpire Shaun George took the players off the field with India at 44 for one in reply to New Zealand’s 157. Play resumed after about 30 minutes, with the disruption reducing the match by one over.

Delayed food delivery

Lunch was delayed by ten minutes at Bloemfontein on the first day of the second Test between Bangladesh and South Africa in 2017, due to delay in the delivery of Halal food meant for the visiting team.

The teams had separate caterers, and it was later found that the ones serving Bangladesh’s food were given a wrongly printed menu, which delayed delivery by an hour and a half. However, it hardly mattered as South African batsmen continued to pester the Bangladesh bowlers.