Kolkata rerouted to Guwahati first and then Varansi after failing to land due to torrential rain in Kolkata

The Kolkata contingent, travelling from Lucknow to Kolkata after their last Ind T20 League clash against Lucknow, had a distressing time on Monday evening when the torrential rains averted their flight from landing. 

As per the details presented by the Kolkata media team, they departed Lucknow at 05:45 PM IST, and they were slated to land at 07.25 PM. An update at quarter to 9 said, “Due to inclement weather over Kolkata, the KKR charter flight has been diverted to Guwahati. We've just landed here." Then, at 9.43pm, "We've got clearance to fly back to Kolkata now, from Guwahati. Estimated arrival: 11pm."  

That would have been that, but an update at 01:15 AM, confirmed that things hadn’t gone evenly. "Flight took off from Guwahati to Kolkata, was scheduled to land at 11pm. Couldn't land once again due to bad weather, despite several attempts. Diverted mid-air to Varanasi now. Just landed here."

And eventually, at 3 am, "The team would be checking into Varanasi hotel [Taj Ganges] for overnight stay. Return flight to Kolkata TBD on Tuesday (7 May) afternoon." The flight is expected to depart from Varanasi at 1:15 PM on Tuesday. 

Fortunately for the two time champions, and the Indian T20 League in general, Kolkata’s next game is on Saturday, nearly a week’s gap from their last match where they defeated Lucknow by a huge 98 runs to claim the top spot on the Ind T20 League 2024 points table. They host Mumbai on Saturday, before rounding off their league engagements in Ahmedabad (vs Gujarat on May 13) and Guwahati (vs Rajasthan on May 19). 

Over the past few days there was torrential rain in Kolkata due to which record-high temperatures were seen.