England left in the dark

Virender Sehwag enabled India to get their run-chase off to the perfect start

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England and India were left questioning the wisdom of the regulations after bad light secured a 16-run victory for the hosts in the third one-day international.

The tourists looked well-placed to pressurise India as they chased England's total of 240 in a match only reduced to 49 overs despite a 45-minute delay for early morning mist.

But with both sides having witnessed how quickly the light fades in Kanpur, they knew the Duckworth-Lewis method for deciding interrupted matches would be required.

That allowed India to pace their run-chase and ensure they were ahead of the required total, leaving England wondering what might have been after reducing India to 198 for five after 40 overs when play was called off at 4.45pm.

The finish was all the more galling because there are four newly-installed lights at Green Park, but both sides agreed they should not be used beforehand because they had not been tested in a major match.

"Everything was taken into account and the game was played according to the playing conditions," said ICC match referee Roshan Mahanama.

"Yesterday the umpires were here at the ground because they knew that light could be an issue and today the fact that it was getting dark and the lights couldn't be used had already been agreed.”

England approached Mahanama before the start of play to register their concerns about only reducing the match to 49 overs and the lunch interval by 15 minutes.

"We knew the light could be an issue so we were trying to make sure we could get a game in this morning," said England coach Peter Moores.

"The umpires made their call and we can make recommendations afterwards.

The smog descended over Green Park in Kanpur making it impossible to get in a full game of cricket

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"The key for me is that we try to make sure it doesn't happen again. A lot of people have come to watch the game and you've got television so we have to do everything we possibly can to get the game in."

But it was the lack of flexibility in the regulations which eventually sealed England's fate and captain Kevin Pietersen agreed with his coach.

"I knew it would be difficult to get a game in," admitted Pietersen. "I mentioned it yesterday at training and I mentioned it the day before when we had a team meeting - it's a very, very bitter pill to swallow but what has happened has happened.
 
"I knew when the decisions were made that there was no way we were going to get this game finished. We tried to get it turned around, but decisions were made and we can't go against decisions that were made by the hierarchy.
 
"What we were worried about was the half an hour that it took to start the game after the 9.15am toss. We wanted to start it as early as possible because we knew we needed to do that to get a full game in."

"In hindsight I definitely would have used the lights. I think they are going to go back to the drawing board now and things are going to have to change.”

Kevin Pietersen discusses the matter of light with the umpires

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It also left him questioning the wisdom of the timings for the sixth match in the series at Guwahati, which is even further north than Kanpur.

"They are going to have to change Guwahati," he said. "We're starting at 8.30am there but it's still not going to make too much of a difference.

“At 4.30pm it's dark here so it's going to go dark at 3.00pm or 3.30pm there so an 8.30am start is not going to help there either."

But India coach Gary Kirsten, whose side need only to win one of the remaining four matches to win the series, backed the officials' decisions.
 
"I don't think the umpires could have done anything different," he claimed. "They couldn't have set up the game knowing there was going to be bad light, they had to set it up according to the time that was available.
 
"We just played to the rules of the game. We won a game of cricket and we're very happy with the circumstances. It's got nothing to do with us how the rules are made."
 
Kirsten, though, admitted India were happy England decided to bat first after winning the toss because it enabled them to control their run-chase to ensure they kept ahead of the Duckworth-Lewis target.
 
"I think we were going to bat second anyway - it worked in our favour," he added. "We were obviously aware that having looked at the weather and the light yesterday that it might come into play and we prepared accordingly for that."