'Ridiculous', 'Crazy' - CPL Eliminator Decided By DLS After Floodlight Failure

The Caribbean Premier League 2024 Eliminator between Barbados Royals and Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) on Tuesday night was decided via the DLS method after a floodlight failure caused a lengthy delay.

TKR won the toss and elected to bat first in the first knockout fixture of this year's tournament. They were rocked early as Sunil Narine was bowled by Maheesh Theekshana. Jason Roy and Nicholas Pooran then helped them to 54-2 by the end of the powerplay.

Pooran held the innings together for TKR, even as skipper Kieron Pollard came and went for a scratchy 17. Along with Andre Russell, Pooran put on 61 for the fourth wicket by the end of the 19th over.

Off the first ball of the final over, Russell hit Obed McCoy for six, taking TKR's score to 168-3, even as one set of floodlights at the Providence Stadium in Guyana went out.

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A lenghty delay

Only a brief delay was expected, but the situation proved difficult to handle, and the break in play stretched on and on. By the time the lights were restored, two hours had been lost and the playing conditions had to be modified by applying the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method, as would have been done in the case of rain.

Hence, TKR's score remained at 168-3 in 19.1 overs, and Barbados were set a target of 60 in five overs. They lost opener Quinton de Kock in the very first over, but David Miller walked in at No.3, smashing his second ball for six and eventually scoring 50 off 17 balls to take his side over the line and into Qualifier 2 with four balls to spare.

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Confusion over cut-off times

An hour after play had been halted, and overs were starting to be lost, Simon Doull on commentary reminded viewers: "If we do have any more issues with this light tower and it doesn't come back on, we've still got until 10:52pm local time, for a five-over contest." This was also the time reported by ESPNCricinfo on their ball-by-ball coverage of the match.

But the lights had not been fixed even as the cut-off time came and went. Instead, problems remained and it was announced that the match would resume at 11:01pm local time, with the five-over innings for the Royals, apparently not in line with the regulations.

This was not taken kindly by TKR fans, as their side would have gone through to Qualifier 2 in the case of an abandoned match on account of finishing higher on the points table.

'Disgusting', 'sabotage' - Fans vent their ire

Even beyond the questionable cut-off times, a few fans went so far as the suggest that there was some form of sabotage involved in the failure of the floodlights, and the delay to fix them.

TKR captain Kieron Pollard said after the match that there had been discussions about resuming the match even with one faulty tower, but that was not done as it would be too dangerous for the players.

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