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Team batting second winning by runs!
Duckworth?Lewis method, supposedly the best method to reset targets in ODIs, has changed the way results are decided, writes Rajneesh Gupta.
In a limited-overs game, side batting first wins by runs and that batting second by wickets. This is what we all have seen over the years and how it is written in the record books - of course excepting the rare instances of a side conceding a match.
Even when the result was made on the basis of run-rate in case of rain / weather interruptions, it was only in line with the established cricketing convention.
Not any more.
Duckworth – Lewis method, supposedly the best method to reset targets in ODIs, has changed all this. Now the team batting second can be declared winner in terms of runs as was the case in the first ODI at Peshawar between India and Pakistan.
Chasing a victory target of 329, Pakistan were cruising along having made 311 for seven after 47 overs, when play had to be abandoned because of bad light.
Pakistan were seven runs ahead of the Duckworth-Lewis requirements at that stage and won the match by run margin. Under the old ruling, they would have been declared winner on run-rate or by 3 wickets.
Surprisingly this is not the first instance of this kind in ODIs. We take a look at all the instances when a side won a match by runs while batting second:
