The Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2024 Eliminator on October 1 was decided via the DLS method after a floodlight failure at the venue. On October 3, the league issued a statement on why the match restarted past the originally communicated cut-off time.
In Guyana, the Trinbago Knight Riders and Barbados Royals faced off in the first knockout match of this year's competition. TKR had reached a score of 168-5 in 19.1 overs in the first innings, when one of the floodlight towers went off.
The match was halted for the delay, which eventually stretched on for two hours. Once the match was resumed, it had been shortened to a five-over contest with the Royals needing 60 to win from five overs. They got over the line thanks to a 17-ball 50 from David Miller, moving into Qualifier 2 and knocking TKR out of the competition.
Controversy erupted online as fans noticed the match had resumed at 11:01pm local time, despite a cut-off time of 10:52pm being announced via the match broadcast. In the case of an abandonment, TKR would have gone through to Qualifier 2 by virtue of finishing higher in the points table.
TKR and West Indies star Andre Russell also felt hard done by, as he posted an Instagram story on Wednesday saying he felt "robbed" and that the situation was "pure f***ry".
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CPL: Interval between innings had not been included in cut-off time calculations
On Thursday, the CPL issued a statement attempting to clarify the apparent mismatch in cut-off times. In it, the league confirmed that the cut-off time of 10.52pm had been communicated to broadcasters, but had subsequently been revised to 11.01pm in order to account for the time allowed for the change of innings, which had not been included in the initial calculations.
The league said power had been restored to all three malfunctioning towers by 10.51pm, and giving them time to achieve maximum brightness was provided, before the match restarted at 11.01pm.
Both teams had also been given the option to play in the partial light, given the importance of the fixture. Barbados Royals were ready to continue, but TKR had refused citing concerns over player safety, something captain Kieron Pollard reiterated when speaking after the match.
Regarding concerns over the seemingly low target for Barbados, the league further clarified: "The ICC approved DLS calculator, which is utilized at the innings break of every CPL game, and which is the universally accepted method used to determine revised targets in an interrupted game was applied, and a target of 60 from the 5 overs was generated."
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