Tuesday, May 04, 2010

West Indies support England's call for Duckworth/Lewis review

West Indies captain Chris Gayle expressed his sympathy for England and supported Paul Collingwood's call for a review of the Duckworth/Lewis system in the Twenty20 game following their eight-wicket win.

England captain Collingwood called for urgent attention to be turned on the D/L method in the game after his team suffered an undeserved defeat to the West Indies in their World Twenty20 group opener.

It left England needing to beat Ireland today to ensure their place in the Super Eights.

West Indies faced a difficult chase of 192 on a slow pitch which was eventually cut to 60 from six overs because of heavy rain.

With the hosts restarting after the rain on 30 for no loss, they needed only 30 more off 22 balls with 10 wickets in hand. A target they met with only ball to spare.

"I'm happy, but it's just unfortunate for England," Gayle said following their victory which booked them a spot in the Super Eights.

"I would support what Collingwood 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."

One of Duckworth-Lewis's advantages is that when a game is being threatened by rain the system is flexible enough for the target to change depending upon the number of wickets lost, rewarding the fielding side for dismissing opposition batsmen.

Now though the problem seems to be when play resumes after a rain break and the team batting second is left with a fixed target in a compressed number of overs that bears little relation to the first innings total.

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