Australia women’s captain Alyssa Healy, who was in attendance during the match between Punjab and Delhi in Dharamsala, recalled the harrowing experience of evacuation after the floodlight was turned off in the stadium due to Pakistan’s air attack in neighbouring cities.
Australia captain Alyssa Healy shared a gripping account of the night when the IPL 2025 match between Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals was abruptly called off due to air raid sirens in neighbouring cities. The match, which was being played in Dharamsala, was halted midway after Punjab Kings were cruising at 122/1 in 10.1 overs, with a floodlight failure initially cited as the reason for the delay.
Healy, who was in the stands along with the families of other players, initially assumed the situation was minor. However, things quickly escalated when the officials reached out to them, asking everyone to vacate the stadium immediately. Healy claimed that the families of the players expected the crowd to clear the stadium first before they could move, but the situation forced them to leave the ground immediately.
“Couple of the light towers went out, and we were just there waiting. I heard a rumour a couple of seats down that we might have to evacuate the stadium cause the lights gone down. And we are large group of family and extra support staff. And next minute the guy that kind of wrangles the group of us and gets us on the bus comes up and his face was white,” Healy said on the ‘WillowTalk’ podcast.
“And he was like, we need to go right now. And we were saying, ‘oh, it’s okay’. Like we’re probably best off letting everyone else get out of the stadium and like stay here. We’re probably safer at the moment. Cause there’ll be people going down the stairs everywhere. Then the next guy came out, his face was white, grabbed one of the children and said ‘we need to leave right now’,” she added.
In the same podcast, Healy shared that teams were mixed in the hurry as the priority was to reach the hotel. Even though she was part of the DC group, the bus also had Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer among others. As the gravity of the situation sank in, Healy learned from her husband, Mitchell Starc, that missile strikes had hit a town 60 km away, triggering a blackout in the area. The IPL match’s floodlights had gone out because the stadium had become a target due to its visibility.
