hailstorm at Gabba, Brisbane...... stoppage of Test..

Woolloongabba is a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia;  particularly famous for being the site of the Brisbane Cricket Ground, known as "The Gabba".  The ground records suggest that the land was set aside for the game way back in 1895. The first Test match at The Gabba was played between Australia and South Africa  in Nov – Dec 1931. Over the years, besides Cricket, the Gabba has hosted athletics, Australian rules football, baseball, concerts, cycling, rugby, and pony and greyhound races.

The 2013–14  Commonwealth Bank Ashes Series  was the prestigious Ashes series between traditional rivals  England and Australia. The five venues for the series were The Gabba, the Adelaide Oval, the WACA Ground, the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the Sydney Cricket Ground. Australia won the series 5–0, and regained the Ashes for the first time since 2006–07. At Brisbane, in the 1st Test - Australia won the toss and elected to bat, were reduced to 6/132 just after lunch on the first day, with Stuart Broad claiming four early wickets.  Eventually they were all out for 295; England was bowled out for 136, a deficit of 159 and in the 2nd essay for 179. Australia won by 381 runs and Mitchell Johnson was named man of the match ~ and this no Cricket post… !!! 

I have earlier posted on ‘hailstorm’ -   a storm during which hail falls ….. in common parlance ‘ice shower’  …. Hail is a form of precipitation that occurs when updrafts in thunderstorms carry raindrops upward into extremely cold areas of the atmosphere where they freeze into ice.  Hailstorm - a type of storm that precipitates chunks of ice that aren't snow.  The post was about falling of (sometimes) golf ball sized hail ~ the damage that it can cause to the property and the resultant claims under policies covering automobiles and property…..  this post is something on what hail did to Cricket, though it could not change the fortunes of England who were battered in that Ashes series. 

There have been stoppages on the field due to multiple reasons – some have been strange ….like a seagull being hit by a Kapil dev fiery shot ….. it was hailstorm that stopped play at Brisbane.  The city had been hit by storms that sprang up on the city's doorstep producing  marble to golf ball-sized hail which damaged some cars at the bayside suburb. Despite strong gutsy winds and hail falling at many places, there was little chance of rain saving England at the Gabba despite Sunday's storms stopping play on Day 4 of the first Ashes Test.

On day 4 of the 1st Test at Gabba, the hailstorm left the grounds looking  like a winter wonderland about 2pm. Earlier, The Courier-Mail reported sunny conditions are forecast for the first cricket Test at the Gabba on Monday while in the north graziers are bracing for storms and showers as the first cyclone of the season pushes moisture inland over the drought-hit Gulf of Carpentaria. The Gabba was hit by a quick but intense storm cell that produced small hail during day four of the first Ashes Test. The monsoon  trough had scattered showers and thunderstorms from the northern interior across to the central coast.

Storms and inclement weather have washed out Matches – in fact the first ever One day International was played on 5th Jan 1971 at Melbourne between Australia and England – because the first 3 days of the third test were washed out – officials decided to abandon the match … and decided to play a one-off one day game consisting of 40 eight ball overs per side………….and ODI was born.

We have seen Chepauk and some other stadiums becoming pools of water….. here are some photos of lush green at Gabba being covered by hailstorms, some of which were as big of golf balls.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar