Just pondering the NZ - SA semi-final... what do posters think of this idea?
With 14 overs to be lost after South Africa had batted 38 overs before the rain.... how about... rather than play 43-vs-43 overs, why not let the team batting first bat out their 50 overs, then set the team batting second a target with 36 overs to bat.
I think D/L is reasonably uncontroversial about setting a reduced over target that is as equivalently difficult as the total made in 50 overs by the team batting first. (Though I do wonder how D/L copes with the recent escalation in scores.)
What to me at least is unclear is the rationale for saying in effect that "if South Africa had known they would have only 43 overs rather than 50 when they started their innings, they would have scored x runs (16 in this match) more than they did by the time of the 38th over when the rain came, without losing any more wickets".
So to reduce the amount of artificiality in the process, why not let one whole innings play out naturally, then you only have to set a target, which seems to be a fairly easy statistical exercise.
With 14 overs to be lost after South Africa had batted 38 overs before the rain.... how about... rather than play 43-vs-43 overs, why not let the team batting first bat out their 50 overs, then set the team batting second a target with 36 overs to bat.
I think D/L is reasonably uncontroversial about setting a reduced over target that is as equivalently difficult as the total made in 50 overs by the team batting first. (Though I do wonder how D/L copes with the recent escalation in scores.)
What to me at least is unclear is the rationale for saying in effect that "if South Africa had known they would have only 43 overs rather than 50 when they started their innings, they would have scored x runs (16 in this match) more than they did by the time of the 38th over when the rain came, without losing any more wickets".
So to reduce the amount of artificiality in the process, why not let one whole innings play out naturally, then you only have to set a target, which seems to be a fairly easy statistical exercise.