#INDvSL: #Smog decides the match in Delhi

Delhi’s notorious smog got to the Sri Lankan cricket team on Sunday in their third Test match with India. The players halted play more than once, reportedly vomited in the dressing room and finally wore anti-pollution masks on the field. Two of their fast-bowlers, Lahiru Gamage and Suranga Lakmal, left the field following breathing difficulties, and in the post-lunch session, the team didn’t have enough fit players for the game.

With the match at the capital’s Feroz Shah Kotla stadium held up, the Sri Lankans forced host India to declare their innings. Significantly, the Indian team took the field without wearing masks.

India declared their first innings at 536-7, with captain Virat Kohli scoring a career-best of 243.

“It (the pollution level) got extremely high at one point, we had players coming in at one point and vomiting. There were oxygen cylinders in the dressing room. It is not normal for players to suffer in that way while playing the game. From our point of view, it has to be stated that it is a very, very unique case,” Sri Lanka coach Nic Pothas was quoted as saying in a report by The Indian Express.

Another report in The New Indian Express said the Lankan players were booed by the 20,000-strong crowd, that also chanted “losers losers” as the players from the island nation retreated to the dressing room.

Delhi’s air quality is currently in the “very poor” category. But BCCI acting president CK Khanna was quoted as saying that “if 20,000 people in the stands did not have a problem and the Indian team did not face any issue, I wonder why the Sri Lankan team made a big fuss”.