IPL 2021: Sandstorm delays second innings action in RCB vs DC clash in Ahmedabad

There are several reasons because of which a cricket match can be halted. On Tuesday, April 27, the IPL 2021 match between Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore saw an interruption as the players could not get on the field to begin the second innings. There was an interruption caused because of a sandstorm that hit the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. 

The sandstorm picked up after Royal Challengers Bangalore finished their innings and were getting ready to defend their first innings score. As the two teams got ready, the stadium was filled with sand entirely and at one point it was difficult to even see anything. 

The sandstorm delayed the start of the run chase of Delhi Capitals by around 15 or 20 mins as the players of the two teams waited in the dugout for the storm to get cleared. There have been previous instances of a sandstorm stopping a match. As a matter of fact, a sandstorm had stopped the Coca-Cola Cup match where Sachin Tendulkar smashed Australia to all parts of the ground in Sharjah in 1998. 

Before the sandstorm, there was an ABD storm

Coming back to the match in Ahmedabad, after the delay of about 20 mins, the run chase finally began at 9:35 PM IST as Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan came out to bat to open the innings for the Capitals. Daniel Sams, who featured for Delhi Capitals last season and was traded to Bangalore ahead of this season, opened the bowling in his debut in the red jersey. 

Earlier in the evening, RCB ended their first innings on the back of a fantastic knock from AB de Villiers. Bangalore got a decent enough start with their openers Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal scoring 12 and 17 respectively. But their quick dismissals brought Rajat Patidar, who made 30 runs from 22 balls, and Glenn Maxwell, who chipped in with 25. But, it was de Villiers’ 75 run knock from 42 balls, which helped RCB finish with a good score of 171 for 5. He smashed Marcus Stoinis for 23 runs in the 20th over. 

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