Whenever rain interrupts cricket matches people start discussing about a popular target score calculation method called Duckworth – Lewis.
What is Duckworth lewis?
It was 1992. The semi-final between England and South Africa was going on in the Sydney ground. South Africa was batting to hit the target of 252 runs. 22 runs are needed in 13 balls to win. But, the match was interrupted by rain.
South African players and their fans in tears, the England fans started celebrating.
Because, according to the then existing system, South Africa balls were reduced to only one. But, the target of 22 runs remained same. Hence, it failed to achieve an impossible target and lost the match to England.
After that match, the ICC decided to do something to ensure that the results of rain-interrupted matches need to be settled.
After that, a new method called Duckworth – Lewis came into existence.
Frank Duckworth, Tony Lewis together invented this method.
This method was used in the 1997 ICC Trophy match between England and Zimbabwe in Malaysia, for the first time.
Still it is being widely used worldwide, whenever rain interrupts matches.
