Here's why England-New Zealand match was halted in between at 1100 hours

It was the seventh over of an exciting Group A fixture between England and New Zealand. With the previous matches of the group being washed out, all eyes were on this match-up between the home team and the perennial dark horses of every ICC tournament. Kane Williamson won the toss and elected to field first, putting the home side into bat first, looking at the overcast condition as well as the Duckworth-Lewis coming into play.

Tim Southee was handed the new ball as he was set to bowl his fourth over of the spell. Alex Hales and Jason Roy were looking to get their eye in for a big partnership to set the foundation for the likes of Stokes, Buttler and Morgan to capitalise on. It was the fourth ball of the over and Alex Hales got hold of a ball way outside off stump which flew over point, bouncing away to the untended boundary rope.

When the clock struck 11.00, suddenly the entire roster of the English Team stood outside their pavilion, followed by the Kiwis present in the ground. The jam-packed stadium at Cardiff, Wales too stood up, baffling many viewers across the world.

Why did the game pause for a minute?

Slowly after connecting the dots, regarding the recent developments in England, many of us were able to comprehend as to what was going on in the field in between the Southee over. A few days back during an Ariana Grande’s concert at Manchester, many attendants of the event lost their lives due to a terrorist attack. The people from the UK could hardly recover from the attack and London was made the target yet again on Sunday when few extremist killed 6 people by ramming a van at London Bridge.

To pay tribute to the victims, the UK government decided to observe a minute’s silence for victims of the London terrorist attack. Also at the Whitehall government buildings, flags were supposed to remain at half-mast. According to UK government website, “The UK will observe a minute’s silence on Tuesday 6 June 2017 at 11 am in remembrance of those who lost their lives and all others affected by the attacks in London on Saturday night. The silence will be marked at all government buildings and other organisations may follow suit. Flags will remain at half-mast on Whitehall government buildings until Tuesday evening.” As it turned out, it was a moment of grief at Cardiff, which halted the high-voltage Group A contest.