Indians seek another clarification

BRISTOL, MAY 23: The Indian team has sought another clarification from the England Cricket Board. This too has a reference to the match a...

BRISTOL, MAY 23: The Indian team has sought another clarification from the England Cricket Board. This too has a reference to the match against Zimbabwe and is crucial to India8217;s progress in the tournament.

India believe that if they win the remaining matches the Net Run Rate NRR will come into play to determine the third or even the second team from the group to make the Super Six.

The ECB was stumped when the Indian management asked it if for reasons of NRR the calculation for the match against Zimbabwe would be taken as 50 overs or 46 overs.

In the event of a three-way tie between India, England and Zimbabwe, the ruling for this will have a direct bearing.

The Playing Conditions are silent about this. It spells out about matches where overs are not reduced and about matches reduced by Duckworth and Lewis. But India8217;s match against Zimbabwe is a peculiar case. If the 46 overs are taken as another penalty against the team, then India being all out could be calculated as 50 overs having been facedrather than the 46 that were thrust on the team for slow overrate by match referee Cammie Smith.

India8217;s net run rate would be better if the calculation was taken for 46 overs.

The following is the operating parts of the rules

Rule 11.2: In the event of teams finishing on equal points the right to play in the Super Six will be decided thus

1. Most wins in Group matches.

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2. When two teams have equal points and wins, the team which was the winner of the group match between the two will be placed in higher position. When more than two have equal points and wins, the team with the most wins between the teams involved in the tie will be placed higher.

3. If still equal the team with the higher net run rate will be placed higher. There are two more clauses

The rule on the Net run rate reads thus:

Rule 11.6: Net run-rate: A team8217;s net run rate will be calculated by deducting from the average runs per over scored by them, the average runs per over scored against that team only thosematches where results were achieved and where the D/L method for recalculating the target score was not utilised will count for NRR calculations.

In the event of a team being all out in less than its full quota of overs, the calculation of its net run rate shall be based on the full quota of overs to which it would have been entitled and not on the number of overs in which it was dismissed.