Bat and ball / Frank Gregan / 10 May 2010 /

Duckworth-Lewis has already created havoc at the T20 World Cup. With plenty more rain predicted for the remainder of the tournament, it's time to look at what it's all about, how to take advantage of it and assess how good a concept it is, says Frank Gregan.

The headline writers have had a field day recently implying that Vera and Jerry were the Duckworth and Lewis responsible for the latest travesty of justice dispensed during the Twenty20 World Cup. Paul Collingwood's men looked harshly treated against the West Indies which led to tabloid indignation and outrage but let's not forget that England have enjoyed the rub of the green with the "rain rule" in previous one day tournaments.

In 1992 during the semi final of the World Cup in Australia the rain started to fall with South Africa needing 22 runs off 13 balls for victory. When the players took the field after the delay the Proteas' revised total was 21 runs off just the one ball!

The problem of how to settle one-day contests continues to dumbfound the authorities, even though it's a given that during any major tournament, rain is going to play its part. There is an old Yiddish saying that always springs to mind when the covers are wheeled out during a much-awaited cricket match playing to a full house and a TV audience of millions - 'Mann tracht und Gott lacht' - Man plans and God laughs.

God seems to be having a right giggle during this tournament, showers are forecast for every remaining day and the Duckworth Lewis method is going to play a massive role in deciding who lifts the trophy. This should ensure that the coaches and captains have D/L at the forefront rather than the back of their minds and have a strategy in place to use the system to their benefit.

Rule number one is to put the opposition in and chase if the toss is won. If proof is needed that D/L favours the chasing side look no further than England's defeat last week by Chris Gayle's men.

Gayle won the toss and admitted after the game that it was the probable weather intervention that caused him to elect to field first.

England got to 191which looked likely to be enough; indeed a team batting first in an international Twenty20 has only scored over 190 on 22 occasions and on 19 of those the total has been successfully defended. Only twice has a total of that magnitude been overhauled (the other game being a tie) yet after D/L had been applied and the West Indian target modified to 60 in six overs, the hosts, (who resumed on 30 without loss after 2.2 overs) were unsurprisingly favourites to win.

If the toss is lost and rain is imminent as soon as the second innings begins the fielding captain should go for broke, even if it means getting a slip cordon in place to try and get wickets . Wickets are the key once the rain falls and the calculators come out to set a revised target. The more wickets that fall the greater the revised total and of course there are consequently less batsmen in the hutch to get the runs.

Duckworth/Lewis is the best available method to settle one day contests but is much better suited to the 50 over format than the "wham, bang, thank you ma'am" style of Twenty20. That's not to say that D/L should be binned but it does need tweaking when used during the shorter format in order to be fairer to all concerned and ensure that the majority of the time, the side that was expected to win prior to the rain interruption, prevails. As in all matches, there'll be the odd upset but it's when the upsets outnumber the expected victories that there is a problem.

Despite that contentious rain-affected defeat England's odds have tumbled from a high of [15.0] to [4.9] as they head towards the semi-finals. Australia have looked awesome and are quite rightly favourites to be lift the trophy at [2.7]. That is still a very big price which is being kept high because of the volatile nature of this format and the possibility that the rain could turn the closing stages of this tournament into a farce.

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