'Beezarre' scenes as swarm of bees halt play during third ODI between West Indies and Sri Lanka

West Indies, on Sunday, thrashed Sri Lanka by six wickets in the third ODI at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium to sweep the three-match series. West Indies had earlier won the three-match T20I series by a margin of 2-1. Asked to bat first in the third ODI, Sri Lanka scored 274 for 6 in the allotted 50 overs as they looked to avoid a whitewash.

Ashen Bandara and Wanindu Hasaranga starred with the bat for the visitors, scoring unbeaten fifties to take the team to a good total. At one stage, Sri Lanka were reeling at 151 for 6. Their top-order batsmen got the starts but failed to convert them into big scores. And just when it looked like Sri Lanka’s innings will be folded for a below-par total, Bandara, and Hasaranga came to their rescue.

The duo shared an unbeaten partnership of 124 runs to guide their team to a competitive total. Bandara scored 55 off 74 balls while Hasaranga scored 80 off 60 balls. For West Indies, Akeal Hosein impressed with the ball, taking 3 for just 33 off his ten overs. The 274-run total, however, was not enough to avoid a whitewash for Sri Lanka.

Riding on Darren Bravo’s century, the home side chased down the total with more than an over remaining. Bravo scored 102 while captain Kieron Pollard (53*) and opener Shai Hope (64) scored fifties too.

Bees interrupt the game

The third ODI between West Indies and Sri Lanka was halted for a few minutes due to a swarm of bees. The incident took place in the 38th over of Sri Lanka’s innings when Anderson Phillip came to bowl. After the first ball, the bees hit the ground and compelled the players as well as the umpires to go to the ground, face down, to avoid any stings. Lying on the ground may seem an odd way to deal with bees but it is widely considered as the best defence against the insects.

Here is a clip of the incident:

Bee 🐝 attack in #WIvSri#INDvENGt20 #Cricket pic.twitter.com/KgA5as5myR

— Cricket Scorecards (@MittiDaPutla) March 14, 2021

This is not the first time a cricket match was stopped due to bees. During the 2019 World Cup, the game between South Africa and Sri Lanka had to be stopped for a while due to the same reason. Two years later, the same teams had to face a similar situation when bees swarmed over Wanderers Stadium.