World Cup 2023: Fog halts India's run chase against New Zealand in Dharamsala's HPCA Stadium

The India-New Zealand ICC World Cup fixture in Dharamsala has turned out to be quite the eventful fixture so far on Sunday.

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Mohammed Shami make a fine comeback into the Indian team, collecting 5/54 in his first appearance for the Men in Blue in the ongoing World Cup. This after Daryl Mitchell brought up his fifth ODI century and forged a massive 159-run partnership for the third wicket with Rachin Ravindra.

The 21st match of ongoing World Cup also witnessed one of the rarer events in cricket — that of a game getting halted due to fog.

Interruptions due to rain are fairly common in the sport, and there are a set of rules (Duckworth-Lewis-Stern Method) to revise targets as well as determine the winner should a downpour cause a reduction in overs or wash a contest out.

Interruptions due to erratic weather however, are largely limited to rain, with climactic phenomenons such as fog, snow, hailstorms, etc making rare appearances, one of which made an appearance during Sunday’s showdown between the tournament’s remaining undefeated sides.

LIVE: India vs New Zealand, ICC World Cup match in Dharamsala

The fog made its way into Dharamsala’s HPCA Stadium shortly after India’s chase of the 274-run target set by New Zealand got underway. Visibility started dropping after the conclusion of the first powerplay, in which the opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill managed to add 63 runs without losing their wickets.

If you play in the hills, I guess you have to live as the weather dictates. First time I am seeing fog stops play.

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) October 22, 2023

The umpires, however, had to call the players back to the dressing room during the 16th over of the innings, at which point both Rohit and Gill had departed in quick succession, with Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer walking off the field along with the Black Caps.

The delay, however, wasn’t too long with the sky starting to clear up soon after, and India’s chase restarted a little over 10 minutes later.