English statisticians Frank Duckworth, who was one of the inventors of the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method to determine the results in rain-affected cricket matches, died at the age of 84.
Invented by Duckworth and Tony Lewis, the original system Duckworth-Lewis (DL) was first put to use in international cricket in 1997.
However, the International Cricket Council formally adopted it as the standard for setting revised targets in rain-affected games in 2001.
The DL method was used during an ODI between Zimbabwe and England in Harare for the first time.
Zimbabwe won the game by seven runs after posting a total of 200 on the board .
However, England had their target revised to 186 from 42 overs due to rain as per DL method. They were restricted to 179/7.
The method replaced the previous system to calculate targets in interrupted matches, most infamously during the 1992 ODI World Cup semi-final between England and South Africa in Sydney.
It was later renamed in 2014 to Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method after Australian statistician Steven Stern made modifications to the system following the retirement of Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis.
Duckworth and Lewis were both awarded Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBEs) in June 2010.
Based on a complex statistical analysis that considers many factors like wickets remaining and overs lost, it sets a revised target for the team batting second.
