The headline in the Weekend Herald here precisely summed up the bizarre result of the 20/20 International at Eden Park in Auckland on Boxing Day.
“It’s a tie but the Windies win,” was its take on the new “eliminator over” regulation used to determine the outcome of the 20-overs-an-innings match that had earlier ended in a tie with New Zealand’s 155 for seven matched by the West Indies 155 for eight.
Even some officials were initially unaware that the method had changed from the previous “bowl off” and there was further confusion when play was delayed while one bank of lights had to be activated.
Yet, after the procedure was explained over the public address system, most of the 20,000 crowd remained to witness an exhibition of power-hitting from West Indies captain Chris Gayle that even surpassed his five sixes and five fours in 67 off 41 balls in the earlier West Indies innings.
Opening his powerful shoulders and swinging the bat like an axe, he launched opposing captain Daniel Vettori for 25 in the allocated over – 6, 1, 6, 6, 4, and 2 – to effectively settle the outcome. In his earlier four overs, the wily left-arm spinner had pinned down the West Indies with three wickets for 16.
Gayle then entrusted the tall left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn with the job of protecting the runs and, although he was hit for sixes by left-hander Jacob Oram first ball and another by Ross Taylor off an above-waist no-ball, he dismissed both to end New Zealand’s challenge 10 runs short.
It was special entertainment for spectators but neither captain was sold on the idea – as New Zealand’s Stephen Fleming and the West Indies’ Shivnarine Chanderpaul weren’t when the teams went to a “bowl off” after a tie in the corresponding 20/20 at the same venue three years ago.
Gayle, whose batting was supplemented by bowling figures of 3-0-16-2 to earn him the Man of the Match award, joked afterwards that it was “a very good one over match”.
“As far as I’m concerned, a tie is a tie,” Vettori said. “I can’t see the need for a contrived result although it might be something for the fans.”
The West Indies continued to prove that the shorter the contest, the better they seem to be at it. They beat South Africa in Port Elizabeth a year ago over 13 overs an innings and Australia over 11 overs an innings in Bridgetown last June, both 20/20 encounters shortened by the weather.
Under the previous “bowl out” rules, each team nominated three players to bowl at the unprotected stumps.
In addition to the 2006 match in Auckland, when the West Indies missed all 18 deliveries, India and Pakistan went through the process at the World 20/20 Championships in South Africa last year. The three Pakistanis all missed, the three Indians all hit.
Under the “eliminator over” system, each team selects three batsmen and one bowler with each team using its full complement of 11 players. The same fielding restrictions as those applied in the last over of a normal 20/20 International apply – in this case only four inside.
The team batting second in the match bats first in the “eliminator” and the same ball is used as that in the second innings.
The loss of two wickets in the over ends the innings.
In the event of tied scores at the end of the “eliminator”, the team with the most sixes combined from its two innings is the winner (the West Indies and New Zealand both had seven after the two initial innings on Friday).
If these are still the same, the number of sixes and fours hit in the “eliminator over” wins. The rules did not state what happens if these are also equal.
And cricket was once such a basically simple game.
