U19 World Cup 2022: Earthquake felt at Ireland vs Zimbabwe match, video goes viral

In what turned out to be a shocking occurrence, there was an earthquake experienced during the  game between Ireland U19 and Zimbabwe U19 in the ongoing U19 World Cup 2022. This was during their Plate semi-final at the Queens Park Oval in Trinidad on Saturday (January 29).

As a matter of fact, the live pictures of the match were seen shaking on the screen, due to this earth tremor during the sixth over of the first innings. As this happened, a commentator was repeatedly heard telling his partner on air that there was an earthquake.

As per Cricbuzz, it was a 5.2 magnitude earthquake that had struck near Trinidad and Tobago on Saturday morning. According to the UWI Seismic Research Centre, this occurred around 9:40 am at a depth of 10km. Andrew Leonard, who was the commentator on air at that time, went on to describe the situation at the time. He said that it seemed to be getting more intense

Earthquake at Queen's Park Oval during U19 World Cup match between @cricketireland and @ZimCricketv! Ground shook for approximately 20 seconds during sixth over of play. @CricketBadge and @NikUttam just roll with it like a duck to water! pic.twitter.com/kiWCzhewro

— Peter Della Penna (@PeterDellaPenna) January 29, 2022

No one knew when it was going to end: Andrew Leonard

“It was probably 15 to 20 seconds of extreme shaking,” Andrew Leonard, the commentator on air at that time. It never felt like that the Media Centre would collapse or anything. It was lack of control… that you were not able to control the shaking…, and no one knew when it was going to end. It seemed to be getting intense particularly in the middle. (It was) a tiny bit scary I guess,” explained Andrew Leonard.

However, it must be noted that the players playing on the field weren’t too bothered about it, and were seemingly quite cool. Besides, Ireland’s skipper Tim Tactor even mentioned that they didn’t really hear anything. However, Leonard went on to say that the Irish support staff were surprised that the game was still going on.

“The support staffs/coaches, who were in the pavilion couldn’t believe that the play was going on! And the shaking left them very worried. “They were on the far side of the ground, in the Brian Lara Pavilion. They recognised immediately that it was an earthquake. The Irish support staff were ready to get into the field. It lasted for only 20 seconds, but the shaking was probably quite violent,” he said.