What an absolute farce of a One-day match we had at Kanpur in the 3rd ODI between India and England. Even though lights are available, you start the match late because of bad light. Then reduce just a single over and in the end with 9 overs to go you declare India as winners by Duckworth-Lewis Rule... I know that crowd wanted to see India win but I'm sure no one liked the way match finished which would have been very different otherwise.
I'll consider two issues which ruined the match. Firstly ICC has a very strange rule regarding the meet of two captains to decide certain rules to be followed in the series. One of the points captains decide is 'whether lights will be used in a day game if game stops due to bad light'. And I don't know for what strange reason Dhoni and KP agreed on 'not using lights' in such situation. And this has not happened for the first time in India. If you remember the third test of Indo-Pak series last year (view scorecard), because lights were not used, match stopped about an hour earlier and India missed a golden chance to win the test. Ravi Shastri hit the nail in the post match comments. He said, "ICC should 'make it compulsory to use lights if they are available' and not to leave it to the two captains. This will help to avoid such matches and controversies it creates about the D-L rule."
The second issue is about the Officials. If the match is starting 45 minutes late due to bad light, you don't need any astrologer to tell that light will get bad in the evening. As Indians knew it, they just wasted as much time as possible and made sure that they were well ahead of the winning score according to D-L method. In India in this season light really becomes bad around 4:30. So why the officials didn’t reduce the match to 45 overs instead of 49 to ensure that it will complete before it gets dark? What is the point of having 'more overs' if they can never be bowled given the conditions.
Although the match was in the favor of India, imagine had it been 55 to win of 9 overs and if they had declared India as winners it would had been really unfair. In the end no one likes to win the way India won the match. Just a small change in rule or one wise decision of officials could have given better match or at least a better end to the match...
I'll consider two issues which ruined the match. Firstly ICC has a very strange rule regarding the meet of two captains to decide certain rules to be followed in the series. One of the points captains decide is 'whether lights will be used in a day game if game stops due to bad light'. And I don't know for what strange reason Dhoni and KP agreed on 'not using lights' in such situation. And this has not happened for the first time in India. If you remember the third test of Indo-Pak series last year (view scorecard), because lights were not used, match stopped about an hour earlier and India missed a golden chance to win the test. Ravi Shastri hit the nail in the post match comments. He said, "ICC should 'make it compulsory to use lights if they are available' and not to leave it to the two captains. This will help to avoid such matches and controversies it creates about the D-L rule."
The second issue is about the Officials. If the match is starting 45 minutes late due to bad light, you don't need any astrologer to tell that light will get bad in the evening. As Indians knew it, they just wasted as much time as possible and made sure that they were well ahead of the winning score according to D-L method. In India in this season light really becomes bad around 4:30. So why the officials didn’t reduce the match to 45 overs instead of 49 to ensure that it will complete before it gets dark? What is the point of having 'more overs' if they can never be bowled given the conditions.
Although the match was in the favor of India, imagine had it been 55 to win of 9 overs and if they had declared India as winners it would had been really unfair. In the end no one likes to win the way India won the match. Just a small change in rule or one wise decision of officials could have given better match or at least a better end to the match...
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