5 strange reasons for which cricket matches have been halted in the past

3. Bee attack

Players stay flat on the ground as a swarm of bees enters the ground

In 2008, the third ODI between South Africa and Sri Lanka was halted for over an hour after a swarm of bees arrived on the field. To protect themselves from a possible bee attack cricketers as well as the umpires lay flat on the ground for quite a while.

This was not the first time bees had interrupted a game of cricket. A bee attack halted another game between the two sides during Sri Lanka's tour of South Africa in 2017, when the Proteas were in their pink jerseys.

Recently, a game between India A and England Lions was halted due to a bee attack in Kerala. The match was paused for 15 minutes and the incident left some spectators injured.

4. Car taking a wrong turn

A Ranji Trophy match between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh in the 2017-18 season was brought to a pause due to car driven onto the pitch by a drunk man, who completely ignored the attempts of players and officials to stop him.

The man was eventually caught by the officials and handed over to the police, and the pitch was declared playable by the referee.

The major security breach resulted in a halt of 20 minutes, and the day's play was extended by 20 minutes to compensate for the lost time.

5. Total solar eclipse

A special Test match between India and England was organized in Mumbai in 1980 to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of BCCI. However, the game could not start on the second day and the scheduled rest day was used due to a total solar eclipse.

Ian Botham, who took 6 wickets on Day 1, scored a hundred on the third day and then picked up 7 more wickets in the second innings as England won the game.

Though the sky only darkened slightly mid-afternoon, the day's play was called off by BCCI keeping the spectators' health in mind.

Apart from these five, there have been other reasons such as the running of a mouse and a pig on the pitch, missing bails, burnt gravy and many more which have resulted in delays or halts in cricket matches.