Want D/L system to be reviewed: Tom Moody

Virat Kohli played a captain’s knock to take RCB over the line

A dejected Tom Moody, coach of the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), revealed his frustration at the existing Duckworth-Lewis (D/L) method after his side suffered a narrow defeat to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Hyderabad on Friday night. The loss has left Hyderabad’s hopes of qualifying for the IPL play-offs hanging in the balance.

In a rain-curtailed game that was initially reduced to 11 overs, Sunrisers Hyderabad posted an imposing total of 135 for 3 with Australians David Warner and Moises Henriques making impressive half-centuries. However, further rain delays meant that RCB were left with just 81 to get from 6 overs with all 10 wickets in hand.

RCB skipper Virat Kohli led the way as he hit a sparkling cameo of 44 from just 19 deliveries to help them romp home with 6 wickets and a ball to spare. While the 26-year-old, not to forget Chris Gayle, who hit 35 from 10 balls, played superbly and took the game away from the SRH bowlers, the hosts always had an uphill task on their hands once it became clear that the dubious D/L method would come into play.

While the D/L method has proven itself in 50-over cricket, doubts still persist in regards to its use for T20s with the method said to overwhelmingly, and rather unfairly, favour the chasing side. That was the case on Friday, and Moody, unsurprisingly, wasn’t pleased.

“I am still a little disillusioned to how Duckworth-Lewis comes up with the numbers they come up with,” Moody said, during the post-match press conference. “You score the total that you have in 11 overs with three Power Play overs. Then you have a rain interruption. You then have to defend six overs with two Power Play with them needing a little over 13 an over. That’s basically what you have done for 11 overs.”

“Plus 10 wickets [in hand], so I think personally I feel that [it should be reviewed]. I am not the only one; it’s been talked about for a fair period of time. There’s something that definitely needs to be looked at there. There is an imbalance. You don’t want rain interruptions. But you also don’t want skewed games with huge disadvantage like that.”

Was always going to be tough against RCB’s top three: Moody

However, Moody was also gracious in acknowledging that any total was going to prove to be hard to defend while coming up against the RCB top three of Gayle, Kohli and AB de Villiers.

“When you are dealing with the top three like RCB have got, it’s always going to be a great challenge in a six-over contest,” he said. “Gayle faced 10 balls; 35 runs later he put a massive dent in the total. He is a dangerous player and we all know that, whether he is batting with six overs, or 20 overs or 100 overs. We needed to pick him early but quality players step up on the big occasion,” the former Australian all-rounder said.

“It’s very hard to answer where it went wrong for us. Each and every player out there did his very best under the circumstances. Am not going to [apportion] blame towards any particular player. At the end of the day, as I just told the players, that we haven’t lost that match.

“This was a game that was thrown into an extraordinary situation. It was a game we would have liked to have taken two points from. We would have liked to play a 40-over contest. But we can walk away very proud with that performance today.”