T20 cricket plays havoc with DL system

Angry Collingwood calls for change in rain rules

The Duckworth-Lewis method used for rain interruptions in limited-overs cricket has been made to look foolish by the cramped equations of Twenty20.

On a shower-interrupted day that saw Sri Lanka beat Zimbabwe in a shortened fixture at the ICC World T20, the West Indies chase of England’s formidable 5-191 was somehow shrunk to a requirement of 30 runs from 22 balls with 10 wickets in hand.

The hosts reeled it in with a delivery to spare at the Guyana National Stadium, leaving England captain Paul Collingwood and his West Indian counterpart Chris Gayle agreeing that England got the raw end of the deal and that the Duckworth-Lewis — used since 1997 — was not standing up to the demands of T20.

Collingwood’s frustrations were clear.

“There’s a major problem with this Duckworth-Lewis in this form of the game,” he said.

“I’ve got no problems with it in the 50-over form. But I know it’s made us very frustrated tonight.

“It certainly has to be revised for this form of the game.”

England’s total was built on a brutal stand of 95 in 56 balls between Eoin Morgan (55) and Luke Wright (45no) after they had earlier subsided to 4-88.

Morgan and Wright belted seven sixes between them, but the rain rules left Collingwood with the exasperated air of a captain who’d been cheated.

“I’m trying to take the emotion out of that defeat,” he said.

“But I think 95 per cent of the time when you get 191 for five on the board you are going to win the game.

“Unfortunately, Duckworth-Lewis seems to have other ideas — bringing the equation completely the other way.

“It’s the second time it’s happened to us now against West Indies, so it is very frustrating — because tonight we’ve played a near perfect game but we’ve lost.”

Gayle tempered understandable West Indian joy at reaching the next phase of their home tournament by empathising with England.

“It’s something they’re going to have to look into,” he said.

“I’d support what Collingwood just said. I could have been in the same position as well.

“It’s something that can be addressed, so it can be ‘even Stevens’ for both teams in the future.”

Devised by the English statisticians Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis, the Duckworth-Lewis method was introduced after less complicated rain calculations had shown too many flaws.

At the 1992 World Cup, South Africa went from needing 22 runs from 13 balls in their semi-final against England, to an impossible 21 runs from one ball.

While Duckworth-Lewis has eradicated such glaring errors, it was devised before the introduction of T20 cricket and so does not account for the steep run-rates that can be achieved in the format.