Duckworth vs Collingwood

"Tonight, live from Providence, Guyana, the ICC brings you a cruiserweight contest over ten rounds for the ICC Championship of the World.

In the blue corner, we have the reigning champion Paul "The Durham Battler" Collingwood, the man who has saved England's bacon countless times over his career. Remember Cardiff, Centurion and Cape Town? Well, it was Colly's grit and determination that saved those matches for England. Colly is a real Dog of War, as well as England's undisputed champion in one day cricket and captain of the T20 team.

In the red corner, we have the challenger Frank "no, I'm not Vera and Jack's son" Duckworth, joint architect of the much maligned Duckworth Lewis Method, which is used to define targets in rain affected limited overs and T20 cricket matches.

The contest has been arranged following England's rain affected match against West Indies here at Providence on Monday, when the rain came after England had amassed 191 off their 20 overs. The DL Method calculated that West Indies only needed to score 60 off 6 overs in order to win the match, which they duly managed.

Understandably, Colly was a bit peeved by this, especially as England had crashed out of the last World T20 in similar fashion against the same opposition. "There's a major problem with Duckworth-Lewis in this form of the game. I've got no problem with it in one-dayers ... but it's certainly got to be revised in this form. Ninety-five percent of the time 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."

But undaunted by facing the Durham Battler and the 5lb bat he wields, Duckworth got his riposte in during the weigh-in "There have been a total of about 70 matches decided by Duckworth-Lewis since Twenty20 was invented in 2002, and there's only been two instances where any dissent has been expressed, and both of those were by Paul Collingwood and the England team, as a result of failing to win against West Indies."

Colly's ire would have been compounded, if the DL Method had handed Ireland victory yesterday and prompted England's premature exit from a competition, some observers (we cannot think who they were) had tipped them to win.

So the mud has been slung, the gloves are on, the Rovers Return is packed and Vera and Jack are hiding behind the bar. Let the action begin. Seconds out, Round One...

Comments

[ceejaypee]

Colly's right though isnt he?

The data used for D/L games is not relevant to T20. Clearly scoring 60 off 5 doesnt carry the same degree of risk or skill as scoring 191 off 20. The wickets in hand are the key factor, with only 5 overs to play you can swing merrily.

I would propose that a rain reduced target is devised from the last overs of the oppositions innings, in backwards order, to replicate the frenetic finish, not based on the overall total, otherwise it is too easy for the side batting second to smash the ball in the first few balls to get ahead and then just cyinically knock the runs off.

Eg England, from their last 3.4 overs scored 32 runs on Monday. The West Indies were given a facile target of 22 runs, because they went out and smashed the ball knowing that the rain would come. This would have resulted in a much tighter finish and would have been relevant to this game, not some meaningless data compiled in a different form of cricket. T20 has changed our perceptions of strike and economy rates in any case.

[The Reverse Sweep]

That's an interesting idea Ceejaypee. Clearly the current DL method doesn't wotk for T20 and needs a severe overhaul. Personally, I think a minimum of ten overs should be required to constitute a match, but hey what do I know!

[Warren K]

Agreed re Duckworth-Lewis. It definitely needs revising for T20.
Slightly off-topic...
Who at the ICC decides where and when ICC Events will take place? Because the person responsible for choosing the West Indies in the rainy-season needs his head read!
I realise the ICC would like to 'share the wealth" and spread the game, but the Windies just recently hosted the World Cup. Why didn't it go to New Zealand, England or Oz. I would have included South Africa, but we've had plenty of late what with IPL II and the Champions League coming up in September.
New Zealand and Oz are going into winter, so would not be perfect choices, but the summer cricket season has just started over in the UK.
I also can't understand why the stadiums are half-empty either...? Didn't the ICC learn anything from the World Cup?
And don't get me started on most of the Windies grounds not being capable of hosting night matches. Surely, the tight schedule of double-headers would be resolved if they just played night-matches. More than half the IPL games were night games.

I'm not bashing the Windies here, it just seems they aren't capable of hosting what is supposed to be one of the top ICC events of the year.

[Warren K]

Doh!
Just read "The ICC gets it wrong again". My previous post would have been better suited after that one.

[The Reverse Sweep]

I think the ICC puts all the names into a hat and pulls out the lucky winner. There certainly doesnt seem to be any rhyme or reaspn involved. I suppose England hosted the World T20 last year, and I think the ICC are trying to recompense the Windies for cocking up the WC so badly.

[Warren K]

Well next time, the ICC should rather donate a whole bunch of pylons and floodlights to the Windies Cricket Board.
And they can chuck in that bloody MRF blimp too!

Was thinking last night as I watched the covers being dragged on and off the pitch, that Mr Modi, would have sold every last inch of those covers to his sponsors.
Imagine the commentators...
"And coming in from long-on is the Hero Honda cover, well met by the Karbonn mobile cover being dragged in from behind square..."

[The Reverse Sweep]

Ah, dear Lalit. If the ICC has any sense, theyll sign him up soon!

[Anonymous]

It’s always sad to see matches being interrupted by rain.
I found one interesting article titled “Rain Ball for uninterrupted Cricket Games”. It discloses a ball which could be used to play cricket even in rain.
To read more plz check http://www.sinapseblog.com/2011/03/rain-ball-for-uninterrupted-cricket.html