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Bad light forces an anti-climax

K.C. Vijaya Kumar

Pietersen apprehensive of conditions in Guwahati

— Photo: K.R. Deepak

NOT SO LIGHT MATTER: England captain Kevin Pietersen, who watches as umpires check for light during the match at Kanpur, feels rules regarding bad light need looking at.

Kanpur: A thin veil of controversy hung briefly in the air as bad light forced an anti-climax at the Green Park Stadium on Thursday. The focus of the seven-match ODI series between India and England, almost moved away from the game.

M.S. Dhoni, who displayed a calm head as darkness descended and helped India stay ahead of the Duckworth-Lewis equation, said: “I walked in with the DL chart in my pocket and I knew that we were ahead of the required rate.”

A dazed England captain Kevin Pietersen mumbled: “What has happened has happened. We tried to chat with the umpires but decisions were made.”

Playing conditions

Pietersen might have felt that his team was done in because switching on the lights is not part of the playing conditions for this series but at the same time he is a party to that decision.

Meanwhile, the larger issue of not scheduling matches at venues where there are established weather patterns in terms of a dipping winter sun or monsoon rain, is something that the Board of Control for Cricket in India needs to address with sensitivity.

Pietersen’s concerns about the light playing truant at Guwahati, the venue for the sixth ODI, are genuine. “We go to Guwahati in the North-East where the sun comes out even earlier. The match referees and chief executives have to go back to the drawing board and change things. At four in the evening, it is going to be dark and an 8.30 a.m. start will help,” Pietersen said.

Many anecdotes

Interestingly the bad-light factor has added sheen to many cricketing anecdotes. In 2000, Graham Thorpe scored the winning runs in semi-darkness as England defeated Pakistan at Karachi to help seal a Test victory. “With fading light and Karachi’s surrounding street lamps acting as auxiliary floodlights, Thorpe guided Nasser Hussain’s team to a famous 1-0 victory,” wrote The Guardian.

India has its share of flickering-light-memories. In a recently published column, Sachin Tendulkar wrote: “I remember Sourav Ganguly and me batting in bad light in the Headingley Test in 2002. We needed quick runs to set a target. The bowlers were finding it difficult, the umpires said they could not see the ball so they were stopping the game. Sourav and I said that the light was fine and we kept pushing it, but had to go eventually and we walked off laughing. We won that Test and levelled the series.”

The point is that a team’s perception of bad light is governed by context. If either continuing to bat or persisting to bowl will yield a victory, a team will not have any issues.

The Kanpur match was poised for an interesting finish though India would have definitely fancied its chances of a win. At the end of 40 overs when the light forced an early closure, India had to score 43 runs from 54 deliveries with five wickets in hand.

The key for England was that Andrew Flintoff and Stuart Broad had an over each and in case they managed to grab a wicket and the other bowlers rallied around, Pietersen’s men could have sprung a surprise.

And for India with Dhoni and Yusuf Pathan at the crease and with Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan to follow, there were reasonable expectations of a victory.

Nature might have contrived a result at Kanpur but England cannot run away from its poor cricket despite Flintoff’s brilliance as a bowler.

“We have played in India for years and we have only seven or nine centuries by England batsmen. Here you need to score big runs and hundreds. Hopefully it will happen in the next four games,” Pietersen said. Hope lingers.

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