IPL 2016: Stephen Fleming believes Duckworth and Lewis Method is "rubbish"

Stephen Fleming during a press conference

The former New Zealand captain and current Rising Pune Supergiants head coach, Stephen Fleming has lashed out against the Duckworth and Lewis method following his team's loss against a formidable Kolkata Knight Riders side at the Eden Gardens last night. The Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led troupe, already having crashed out of the Indian Premier League, was playing for honour against an in-form and resolute Knight Riders line-up.

The evening started pretty well for the Indian limited overs captain as he decided to put Gautam Gambhir's men to field after having won the toss. Propelled by the likes of Usman Khawaja, George Bailey, and Saurabh Tiwary the Supergiants were scoring runs at a pretty decent rate despite losing the early wicket of Ajinkya Rahane.

However, the introduction of Piyush Chawla and Sunil Narine on a turning Eden Gardens track immediately tilted the match heavily in favour of the home team. Chawla picking up a couple of important wickets including that of George Bailey and Sunil Narine maintaining an economy rate of 2.72 after having bowled 3.4 overs restricted the Supergiants to 103 for 6 in 17.4 overs before the Calcutta weather started to play a spoilsport.

Having said that, when things were looking a bit gloomy from the cricketing perspective after a couple of rounds of heavy shower, the Eden Gardens ground staff worked relentlessly to make sure that the match would have a proper conclusion. Post ground inspection, the match officials decided to go about with the game as the Knight Riders were allocated a target of 66 runs to chase within 9 overs as per the Duckworth and Lewis method.

The 'Men in Purple and Gold’ despite losing a couple of early wickets, reached the allotted target in just 5 overs courtesy a quickfire 18-ball 66 by the Senior Pathan.

Having lost nine of the 12 IPL matches that they have played, the RPS head coach was heard fuming at the post-match press conference. “Duckworth-Lewis is rubbish. As soon as you get to D/L, the game is over. I've been saying that for years. The others have said it as well but there's no point carrying on too much about it,” said Stephen Fleming.

“It (Duckworth and Lewis) needs to be addressed. There's no willingness to change. It's not made for a T20 game. It's just ridiculous really and until it's addressed you just hope the sky doesn't open up,” he added.

Talking about the nature of the Eden Gardens pitch, the former Kiwi skipper added, “The track was turning. We (RPS) knew it would have been a difficult chase with our spinners but as soon as D/L came in, the game was over. As simple as that.”

“It was hard, a difficult pitch to bat on. The approach was to play positive cricket but we lost wickets because the ball turned. It was (a) difficult score. We knew we would lose wickets with that type of pitch. With spinners on, it would have been a difficult chase."

"Soon they reduced the score, and with the wet ball and rain, it was difficult. There was not much about the game apart from the fact that rain curtailed in what could have been a tight chase. The longer the game, we would have got more chance. As soon as the game reduced, it's game over and end of (the) story,” Stephen Fleming concluded.