Before DLS, rain decided matches in ways nobody could defend. Here is the story of the three rain rules cricket has used, and why the current one won.
Method 1: Average Run Rate
The simplest rule: scale the target in line with overs lost. If Team 1 scored 240 in 50 overs, that's 4.8 an over, so a 25-over chase needs about 120.
The flaw: it ignores when runs are scored. A team's first 25 overs usually produce far fewer runs than their last 25, so a chase cut to 25 overs got an easier target than the real scoring pattern justifies, and the team batting second often had the advantage when overs were lost.
Method 2: Most Productive Overs
To fix that, cricket used the Most Productive Overs method in the early 1990s. When Team 2's innings was shortened, the target was Team 1's total from their best-scoring overs only, equal to the number of overs Team 2 got to face.
It tried to be fair but it ignored wickets, and it was easy to see how it could go wrong.
The 1992 World Cup Semi-Final
South Africa needed 22 runs off 13 balls against England in Sydney when rain stopped play for a short spell. Under the Most Productive Overs rule, the overs taken away from South Africa's chase were matched by removing England's least productive overs, which included maidens. So almost no runs came off the target while South Africa lost most of their remaining balls. The new equation: 22 off 1 ball. The crowd laughed, the players wept, and the rule's reputation was finished.
Method 3: Duckworth-Lewis, Then DLS
Statisticians Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis proposed a method based on resources, a combined measure of overs and wickets remaining. It was first used in an international match in 1997 and adopted by the ICC in 1999. After Duckworth and Lewis retired, Professor Steven Stern took over and refined it, so the method has been called Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) since 2014.
The Three Rules Compared
- Average Run Rate: simple, but ignores wickets and when runs are scored.
- Most Productive Overs: accounts for when runs were scored, ignores wickets, and can set absurd targets.
- DLS: models overs and wickets together using historical data, so it adjusts for both.
Is DLS Perfect?
No. DLS is based on historical averages, so it can misjudge a match played in unusual conditions or between very different teams. In India, a rival method, the VJD method by V. Jayadevan, is used in domestic cricket. But DLS remains the standard for international matches because of its track record and its transparency.
Learn the Method
Follow a full set of worked DLS examples, read the DLS explainer, or try the DLS Calculator. When teams finish level on points, Net Run Rate decides who goes through.
