Cricket's devil in the D/L: Dramatic rain-affected finishes

It may have replaced a system that produced the farcical finish that saw South Africa needing to score 21 runs off one ball to beat England in a 1992 World Cup semi-final in Sydney, but the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method has been involved in its fair share of controversy as well.

The death aged 78 of Tony Lewis, who together with fellow mathematician Frank Duckworth devised the original D/L formula, designed to set revised targets in weather-affected limited overs matches, was announced on Wednesday.

The system was introduced in 1997 and adopted by the International Cricket Council two years later, with Steven Stern becoming the custodian of the method when mathematicians Duckworth and Lewis retired.

"His contribution to the game of cricket will be remembered for years to come," said ICC general manager Geoff Allardice as he paid tribute to Lewis on Thursday.

Critics, however, insist the system is too complicated and here AFP Sport looks at three of the most dramatic finishes to a match involving the Duckworth-Lewis formula: 2003: South Africa exit own World Cup as Boucher blocks out =================================================
"Both Shaun Pollock (South Africa captain) and Sanath Jayasuriya (Sri Lankan captain) had the same papers (with the run-rates)," said Duckworth. "Sanath read it right and Shaun didn't."
2009: Dyson does for the West Indies
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2018: Scotland's World Cup heartache
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