Vijay Hazare Trophy: Tare calls for ‘reserve days’

Despite being ahead, defending champion Mumbai had to bow out on the basis of victory-count in the league stage.

Mumbai opener Aditya Tare was in fine touch before rain washed out the Vijay Hazare trophy quarterfinal tie between the title holder and Chattisgarh. (File photo)

Mumbai batsman Aditya Tare, who was unbeaten along with Yashasvi Jaiswal while chasing a target of 192 in 40 overs in the rain-affected knockout rubber against Chhattisgarh, called for “reserve days” in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Despite being ahead of its opponent, defending champion Mumbai had to bow out on the basis of victory-count in the league stage — the criterion in the event of a washout; Chhattisgarh had accounted for five wins to Mumbai’s four.

Scoring at 8.26 per over, openers Tare (31* off 31) and Jaiswal (60* off 38) stitched a 95-run partnership in 11.3 overs when rain stopped play.

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“Maybe in the future, reserve days need to be considered especially for the knockouts,” Tare told  Sportstar  on Monday.

Both Tare and Jaiswal have been in fine touch in the tournament with the latter smashing a double hundred against Jharkhand; the 17-year-old became the youngest batsman to do so in List A cricket.

“It is tough to go out like this, after playing well and being ahead of the opposition throughout the game,” Tare added.

According to reports, the Mumbai side is likely to ask the state association to discuss the rule with the BCCI. “How should the performance in the league stage matter in the knockout stages? Every day is a new day. Else, a good team goes out in this fashion,” a member of the Mumbai support staff was quoted as saying by  PTI .

In rain-truncated matches, BCCI domestic cricket operates on the VJD rule devised by civil engineer V. Jayadevan from Kerala. It is an alternative to the Duckworth-Lewis-Sterne method used by the ICC.

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The VJD system considers statistics from previous games and also assumes a high-scoring rate in the first few overs, a slump in the middle overs and a rapid rise in the death as against DLS system that believes the scoring rate can only increase with the progress of an innings. 

“We will have to see if, in the DLS method, we qualify (from where the match was called off). If we would have qualified, then we will write to the board about it,” a senior MCA official said.

(With inputs from PTI)