Power failure hits Chittagong venue

Netherlands' chase in their World T20 warm-up match against Afghanistan was curtailed by five overs because of a power failure at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong. Local authorities got the floodlights working in 15 minutes, but the delay left Netherlands chasing a revised target of 122 in 15 overs. They were dismissed for 86.

"The power failure occurred because of a problem in the national grid in Comilla," Nazrul Islam, a power development board official, told Bengali newspaper Samakal. "The centre was immediately informed, and the power restored immediately afterwards."

According to an eyewitness, the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium lost power three times during the game. The first outage was at 4.43pm and lasted 23 minutes. Due to the quality of natural light, the match was unaffected, but the second outage at 5.15 pm delayed the start of the second innings. The Netherlands batsmen had to go off as soon as they had taken the field. Power was restored after four minutes but went off again, and by the time the floodlights were running, 15 minutes had been lost. Netherlands were eventually bowled out in 12.3 overs, after Afghanistan had made 150 for 7 in 20 overs.

The only other power failure during a match at the Chittagong venue was when Bangladesh played Pakistan in an ODI in 2011. Play was interrupted for 20 minutes.