Instances when a match was halted due to unexpected reasons in recent years

The 3rd ODI match between South Africa and Sri Lanka witnessed an unusual happening as the match was stopped due to the intervention of bees. Players laid flat on the ground as the match was paused for quite a few minutes. The match eventually went on as per schedule as Sri Lanka posted a meagre 163 on the board after batting first courtesy a 74 from opener Niroshan Dickwella.

The game was going along nicely but just after the dismissal of Dhananjaya de Silva something strange happened. As Chris Morris was about to deliver the final delivery of the 25th over, a swarm of bees invaded the pitch and the players lay flat on the ground. It continued for a few minutes but relented pretty soon for the match to commence.

The bees again came back during the 27th over as the umpires paused the match yet again. There was no play possible for the next half an hour as the authorities tried every possible measure to resume proceedings. Chris Morris came out with a fire extinguisher and a security official sprayed it on the bees. Though the situation improved and the match went on, but still few of them were still there.

Apart from this rather unusual intervention, we had three other incidents apart from rain and floodlight interference which halted the match. During the match between Knights and the Titans in the Ram Slam T20 2015, a sprinkler in the ground got turned on due to a technical glitch and started sprinkling water on the ground. It was a pretty unusual thing on a cricket field. As the water didn’t log much so the match began after a break of around 10 minutes.

Also read: Bees invade the pitch during the 3rd ODI between South Africa and Sri Lanka

In another incident, fire crackers prevented the match from happening. It was the match between Middlesex and Somerset during the 2016 Natwest T20 Blast. There was rain before the match and post that they put on crackers. As a result, smoke engulfed the ground and the players went back to the dugout. The match was 10 minutes delayed everything came to normalcy.

During the same tournament, another unusual incident occurred which halted yet another contest. The encounter in question was between Kent and Sussex where South African quickie Kagiso Rabada made his debut. The match was halted before due to bad light and it came into play once again at the opposite of the ground. This time the setting sun reflected off the windows of the Sky Sports Commentary box which dazzled the batsmen’s eyes and caused a further 10 minutes delay.