Sussex Sharks were denied victory in a T20 Blast fixture against Surrey by the rain, with a controversial – and, in the view of Duckworth and Lewis themselves, incorrect – interpretation of the playing conditions around the DLS method proving costly.

Sussex’s chase was interrupted after 4.5 overs, with the south coast side well ahead of both the DLS par score and what the adjusted five over target would have been, had a revised target been set. The hosts were 43-1 in pursuit of 176 to win. Had the umpires decided a five-over game could be finished, the readjusted target would have been 39 to win, and Sussex wouldn’t have been required to face another ball. However, with no more play possible, the match was abandoned.

The issue is a recurring one, having robbed Kent of a win in the T20 Blast last year, as well as Australia twice, in a T20I against Pakistan in 2019, and in the 2017 Champions Trophy against Bangladesh, with the no-result playing a part in their elimination from the competition.

After the Champions Trophy game, Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis, the statisticians who created the rain rule which bears their name, argued that “there are compelling reasons, within the existing ICC ODI regulations, for Australia to have been awarded victory in that game” and that “the ICC’s own rules are not being applied appropriately in such cases”.

“The revised target should be continuously under review as time is lost,” they wrote for ESPNcricinfo, arguing that a “static approach” to adjusting targets is sub-optimal. “The dynamic approach to the target revision process means that as overs are being lost the target is coming down. We can lose a maximum of 30 overs, but you can see that when only 28 have been lost, with six more overs of play possible, two more than the minimum of four to make up the 20, Australia have enough runs to have won. They don’t need any of those six more overs. So why does it matter whether or not play is possible in those six overs? Australia should be declared the winners.”

The proposed interpretation would not apply to all games abandoned before a result can be reached during the chase, only to those in which the chasing side are ahead of what the readjusted target would be if one were to be set.

There was criticism of the interpretation on social media, with the official Sussex CCC Twitter account sardonically acknowledging their misfortune.

In the Blast game in question, Surrey youngster Jamie Smith sparkled in making a half-century, while Tymal Mills further pressed his T20 World Cup claims by taking 3-21 in four overs. Phil Salt fell for a brisk 20, while Luke Wright had the same score to his name, unbeaten, when the rain became too heavy for play to continue.

Related tags:

County Cricket