Women's World Cup: 'Bugs break' halts play between India and Pakistan in Colombo

Unusual scenes unfolded at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, Sri Lanka, during the high-profile clash between India and Pakistan in the 2025 Women's ODI World Cup as play was halted to allow ground staff to carry out pest control measures.

Persistent rain in Colombo over the past few days has led to a surge in bugs across the outfield, causing visible discomfort and distraction for players from both sides during the match.

Once 34 overs were done, the match officials decided to temporarily walk off the field so that the ground could be cleared of bugs and make playing conditions better.

A member of the ground staff fumigates the field during the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2025 match between India and Pakistan. AFP

The interruption, though unexpected, will not affect the match duration as it is understood that the expected halt of 15 minutes will be compensated by shortening the innings break, and no overs will be deducted.

At the time of interruption, India had reached 154/4 in 34 overs, with Jemimah Rodrigues and Deepti Sharma unbeaten on 28 and two respectively.

Fatima Sana (front) sprays insect repellent in the air during the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2025 match between in Colombo. AFP

Pushed into batting first, India began positively as Smriti Mandhana pulled Sadia Iqbal for four, before Pratika Rawal brought out punches and a leaning drive to take a hat-trick of boundaries off Diana Baig.

Smriti unfurled the square drive, deft dab and crunchy cut to take three boundaries off Diana, and even survived an lbw appeal off her, as replays showed the ball pitching miles outside leg-stump. But Pakistan pulled things back when skipper Fatima Sana Khan trapped Smriti lbw with a nip-backer, as the India vice-captain also burnt a review.

India's Smriti Mandhana (C) and Pratika Rawal (R) run between the wickets during the match. AFP

With the need to get the scoring rate up, Harleen Deol got going by cutting late off Rameen Shamim for four, before dancing down the pitch to loft over long-on for six.

Pakistan again struck when Pratika shaped to punch a back-of-the-length arm-ball angling in from Sadia, but was left seeing her off-stump being pegged back.

Though Harleen and Harmanpreet Kaur cracked a boundary each, Pakistan's disciplined bowling meant they couldn't really break free.

That effort brought reward for Pakistan as Diana had Harmanpreet tickling one down leg to keeper Sidra Nawaz just before the halfway mark of the innings.

Indo-Asian News Service