St Lucia Zouks 50 for 3 in 4.1 overs (Fletcher 16*, Nabi 15, Khan 2-24) beat Barbados Tridents 131 for 7 in 18.1 overs (Charles 35, Holder 27, Chase 2-8, Kuggeleijn 2-28) by seven wickets (DLS method)
Is the DLS method a fair way to determine targets in rain-shortened T20 games? Graeme Smith, the former South Africa captain, recently said he doesn’t think so, and he could have used Thursday’s CPL game between the Barbados Tridents and the St Lucia Zouks as an example to support his argument.
It was shaping up to be a slow-scoring tussle between two spin-heavy attacks on a two-paced pitch. Rain arrived, ate away more than two hours of action, and transformed the nature of the contest. Rather than a 20-over target in the region of 145, the Zouks had to chase a far less challenging 47 in five overs, and they got home with ease, with five balls to spare.
The Zouks attack – Mohammad Nabi in particular – bowled well enough to be deserving victors, but rain and the arithmetic of DLS rendered everything about the first innings almost irrelevant. To rephrase the cliche about games of two halves, this was a game of two games, or maybe even two entirely different sports.
Luck favours the chasing side
Luck plays a fairly influential role in T20 contests; over five overs, with the batting team still having ten wickets to play with, this role is magnified. The Zouks hit seven fours and two sixes in their chase, and of those nine boundaries, four were miscues – including the first two that Rahkeem Cornwall edged behind the wicket in the first over to set the tone of the chase – and one was a chance that Mitchell Santner couldn’t wrap his hands around at long-on.
Over a longer contest, these moments of fortune play a smaller role in deciding the result. The Tridents, moreover, had an attack made for this Tarouba surface, with four frontline spinners, but three of them didn’t get to bowl at all. The fourth, Rashid Khan, picked up two wickets and could have had a third (the chance Santner failed to grab off Nabi) but ended up going for 24 in his two overs.
More to follow…