At the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, on-field umpires Rohan Pandit and K.N. Ananthapadmanabhan conducted six inspections, where the fog got worse as the evening progressed and AQI levels neared 400, before the game was called off.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cWe wanted to win in the beginning, but the match didn\u2019t happen. I wanted to see Shubman Gill, but he wasn\u2019t there playing,\u201d said a young boy to IANS outside the stadium.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Another fan asked for the abandoned game to be rescheduled. \u201cThe public waited for a long time, including till the end, for the match to happen. Yes, it's a disappointment. We want this match to be rescheduled.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Interestingly, on Wednesday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had issued an orange alert for \u2018very dense fog\u2019 in 13 districts of eastern and central Uttar Pradesh. It also issued a yellow alert for dense fog in 27 districts from the eastern to western parts of the state.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The BCCI Vice-President Rajeev Shukla, who holds significant influence in the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Stadium (UPCA), did have a chat with the umpires, but that didn\u2019t force the fog to go down.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Once the match was abandoned, there was huge criticism over the game\u2019s scheduling at this time of the year from the BCCI\u2019s Tours and Fixtures Committee.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cI want to say that today's weather prediction is so accurate that we already know what the weather will be like for the day. If we knew this, we could have seen this played as a match in the afternoon. It could have been held from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. If it had been played in the day, we wouldn't have had this problem.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cAll the people who have been disappointed today because of the match cancellation, it wouldn\u2019t have happened if they had planned for it to happen in the afternoon, and it would have happened easily. There is no fog in the afternoon, and everyone would have come,\u201d said another fan to IANS.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cI want to say that today's weather prediction is so accurate that we already know what the weather will be like for the day. If we knew this, we could have seen this played as a match in the afternoon. It could have been held from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. If it had been played in the day, we wouldn't have had this problem.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cI don't want to get angry. Everyone's safety is important. The safety of our players is very important. We don't want anyone to get hurt or injured. But we want them to know this beforehand. Everything is already known in the forecast. Accordingly, they should have played the match in the afternoon,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\r\n\r\n