The India-New Zealand match at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala suffered an unusual delay, with heavy fog interrupting play.
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During the 15th over of India’s run-chase, the players had to stop just as Mitchell Santner was about to deliver the third ball of the over. A strong, near-opaque cover of mist and haze engulfed the ground making the visibility drop significantly.
Following a short delay of a minute or so, the fog seemed to clear away as play resumed. However, just one over later, play had to be stopped again, and this time the covering of the fog was dense enough to force the players off the field.
Dharamsala, situated in the hilly regions of northern India, is prone to extreme cases of fog, especially during this time of the year when winter starts setting in.
As the players went off the ground, India’s score read 100-2 in 15.4 overs. Simon Doull expressed his concerns about the weather on commentary: “I’m no weather expert, but not sure whether it gets any better as the night goes on. This fog.. what else do you do?
“Oh this is very tough, very, very tough for the batters. Lockie Ferguson’s bowling at about 145, 148 kph. He is quick and in such a situation to play with that kind of fog or whatever, not going to be easy,” said Sunil Gavaskar on air, elaborating on how the conditions would be difficult for batters.
Luckily, the fog cleared after a while and play resumed after a 15-minute delay, with no overs lost. While they were ahead of the DLS par score at the time of interruption, a minimum of 20 overs have to be bowled in the chase for a result to be reached by DLS, meaning if no further play happened, both teams would have shared a point each.
On the other hand, had there been an extended delay and had the chase been cut short to 20 overs, India’s target would have been 124, meaning they would have been required to score 24 more runs in 26 balls.
