Duckworth Lewis system under criticism for T20 Cricket
The Duckworth Lewis system has come under renewed criticism as rain curtailed games provide premature ends, handing improbable win to the West Indies in the second match of day four of ICC T-20 World championship in the West Indies.
The first match of the day was also affected by rain, a brilliant hundred by Mahela Jayawardene had taken the Lankans to a total of 173, leaving the African with a task of scoring more than eight runs per over, in tricky batting conditions. But rain intervened after the first over, shortening Zimbabwe’s chase to 104 runs in 11 overs. But the luckless Africans had another rain interruption to deal with after they had reached 29 for 1 in 5 over, needing another 75 run off six overs.
The match was than awarded to the Sri Lankans, who were 14 runs ahead according to the ruling by the South African pair messers Duckworth and Lewis. The baffling thing is that a twenty over innings was decided on the virtue of a team’s performance in the first five overs, and a match which should have been abandoned went in the favour of the team batting first.
To add insult to injury the next match between the hosts and England met similar fate, as despite posing an imposing total of 191 runs batting first the Englishmen had to endure a defeat as a rain interruption curtailed West Indies chase to 60 runs off six overs which was duly completed.
Once again a twenty over innings was decided on the virtue of the score inside the first six overs, which in this case supported the side batting second overwhelmingly. After the match a despondent English captain Paul Collingwood, requested International Cricket Council to redo the rain ruling which can jeopardize a team’s chances in a crucial match.
Collingwood said: "There's a major problem with Duckworth-Lewis in this form of the game," the frustrated all-rounder added "I've got no problem with it in one-dayers, and I know it's made me very frustrated tonight because I've come off the losing captain, but it's certainly got to be revised in this form.
"Ninety-five percent of the times when you get 191 runs on the board you are going to win the game. Unfortunately Duckworth-Lewis seems to have other ideas and brings the equation completely the other way and makes it very difficult."
What is a tougher pill to swallow for Collingwood, is the fact that his team has been undone by the same opponents due to the controversial rain rule, twice in two consecutive matches of the T-20 world championship, following his team’s reversal against the Calypsos in last year’s super eights match at the Oval In London, and Collingwood was less than amused.
"I'm trying to take the emotion out of that defeat to be honest with you," he said. "It's the second time it's happened to us against West Indies so it's very frustrating for the boys because we've played a near-perfect game and still lost."
The West Indian captain Chris Gayle sympathized with Collingwood, agreeing that the D/L method was not the best way to decide a 20 over match, yet he revealed that his team had a strategy in place for the rain interruptions.
"We knew that the weather was going to play a part so the first five overs, obviously, can determine the game," Gayle said. "So we decided to go out and see what we could get out of the first five overs. The target was actually 43, I think, at one stage and the adaption went in our favour. After the rain we knew we were most likely to win the game from there on."
The controversial results have dampened the tournament, reviving memories of the 1992 cricket world cup in Australia and New Zealand where the rain rule favoured the team batting first overwhelmingly. In one instance the South Africans were left to chase 22 runs off 1 ball, after they were originally placed requiring the same number of runs, off 13 balls before a rain interruption in the semi-final of the tournament.
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