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Rain proves a wet blanket on CB Series
Three of the 5 CB Series games have been rain-hit - a situation that has favoured sides batting second
- NDTVSports
- Updated: February 21, 2008 05:16 PM IST
Read Time:2 min
Canberra:
Two of the five games in the CB series so far were abandoned due to rain. Tuesday's game lost 50 overs of playing time because of intermittent showers.
But for Indian captain MS Dhoni, all his team's hard work in setting up an imposing target of 196 in 29 overs went down the drain as the target was reduced to 154 in 21 overs.
It meant India had 42 runs less to defend, and Sri Lanka wouldn't have worried too much about being bowled out in 21 overs.
"We were quite happy with target we set," said Dhoni after the game. "But the match getting shortened meant it was like a Twenty20 match."
The Duckworth-Lewis method has, in fact, been unkind to teams batting first. Since 2003, in 53 matches where rain has affected play, the team batting first has won just 18 times.
The side batting second has come out on top almost twice as often --- 31 times, a clear indication that with targets available at the end of each over, teams chasing in shortened matches have a better chance of winning.
With 7 matches still left in the league stages, let's hope there's less of rains and much more of the strokeplay Sanath Jayasuriya entertained the crowds with on Tuesday.
If you're the Australian, Sri Lankan or Indian cricket team, the rain is something you've partly got used to. Two of the five games in the CB series so far were abandoned due to rain. Tuesday's game lost 50 overs of playing time because of intermittent showers.
But for Indian captain MS Dhoni, all his team's hard work in setting up an imposing target of 196 in 29 overs went down the drain as the target was reduced to 154 in 21 overs.
It meant India had 42 runs less to defend, and Sri Lanka wouldn't have worried too much about being bowled out in 21 overs.
"We were quite happy with target we set," said Dhoni after the game. "But the match getting shortened meant it was like a Twenty20 match."
The Duckworth-Lewis method has, in fact, been unkind to teams batting first. Since 2003, in 53 matches where rain has affected play, the team batting first has won just 18 times.
The side batting second has come out on top almost twice as often --- 31 times, a clear indication that with targets available at the end of each over, teams chasing in shortened matches have a better chance of winning.
With 7 matches still left in the league stages, let's hope there's less of rains and much more of the strokeplay Sanath Jayasuriya entertained the crowds with on Tuesday.
Topics mentioned in this article
Cricket Australia Cricket Team Virender Sehwag Brisbane Cricket Ground (Woolloongabba), Brisbane George Bailey Harbhajan Singh Matthew Hayden Robin Uthappa Tim Ambrose Rohit Sharma India Cricket Team Brett Lee MS Dhoni Michael Clarke Sri Lanka Cricket Team
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