Duckworth & Lewis

Duckworth what?

The one day game is an exciting variation of the sport where the rules have been amended to encourage more spectator friendly cricket.

The Game

Each team gets only one innings of 50 overs and the team that bats first attempts to post as high a score as possible. If ten batsmen are out before the full number of overs are bowled, the innings is over. The team that bats second has 50 overs to 'chase' the first innings total.

Duckworth Lewis

Bad weather is cricket's biggest enemy, and interruptions mean that the number of overs may have to be reduced, providing each team bats a minimum of 20 overs. But if the weather is such that the team batting second can’t bat the same amount of overs as the team batting first, then the infamous Duckworth-Lewis method is used to determine the result.

Duckworth-Lewis is a statistical analysis that extrapolates the teams current score taking into account deliveries left to face and wickets in hand. It can be quite tricky to work out as South Africa found out to their cost in the 2003 World Cup semi-final.

The infamy of Duckworth & Lewis

Power Plays

In an effort to make one day cricket more exciting, the powers that be at the ICC introduced fielding restrictions, which have evolved into power plays.

A circle with a radius of 30 yard from the centre of the pitch divides the infield and the outfield. During a power play, only two fielders can be placed in the outfield, encouraging batsmen to aim for the boundaries. This had led to the tactic of introducing pinch hitters -big hitting batsmen who normally play down the order - to open the innings

Two fielders (bowler and wicket keeper aside) are required to stand in the close infield area which is 15 yards in radius from the centre, in what are close catching positions. Power plays are mandatory for the first 10 overs then it is up to the fielding side to decide when to deploy two further power play blocks of 5 overs.

Bowling Restrictions

To prevent teams from only utilising their best bowlers, a maximum of 10 overs is allotted to each bowler, meaning a minimum of 5 bowlers have to be used if all overs are bowled.

Stricter interpretations of the wide rule are also enforced to stop bowlers from bowling 'unplayable' deliveries. Balls drifting leg side are normally called wide and only one bouncer an over is permitted.