By BV Swagath
The ICC has decided to continue with the existing Duckworth Lewis Method in calculating targets in rain-affected matches. The D/L Method was challenged by the VJD Method, a formula devised by an Indian based Engineer V Jayadevan. The ICC announced that there were no significant flaws proved in the D/L Method and that it didn’t believe that the VJD method was offering any new improvements.
The VJD Method has been used by the BCCI in its domestic tournaments except in the IPL and the CLT20. Jayadevan, who has developed the VJD method, claims that his formula differs from the D/L Method. The main difference he says that batting teams tend to score quickly during the early part of their innings because of the field restrictions, then slow down in the middle overs and eventually in the slog overs, go onto accelerate the scoring. On the other hand, the D/L method assumes that a batting side starts slowly and accelerates only in the final overs of the innings.
Another point of difference between the two methods is that VJD uses two different curves. Jayadevan says that the batting side could change its tactics prior to the rain break and after the rain break. The simple logic is that a batting side would have started its innings thinking that it would get the full quota of overs. However, when overs are lost after a rain break, the tactics have to be changed accordingly by the batting side.
The ICC though hasn’t found the VJD Method to be outperforming the existing D/L Method and has therefore decided not to experiment with the former.
