ENGLAND were left questioning the wisdom of the regulations after bad light secured a controversial 16-run victory for India in the third one-day international.
The tourists looked well placed to pressurise India as they chased England's total of 240 in a match bizarrely only reduced to 49 overs despite a 45-minute delay for early morning mist.
But with both sides having witnessed how quickly the light fa
des in Kanpur, they knew the Duckworth-Lewis method for deciding interrupted matches would be required.
That allowed India to pace their run chase and ensure they were ahead of the required total, leaving England wondering what might have been after reducing India to 198 for five after 40 overs when play was called off at 4:45pm.
The finish was all the more galling because there are four newly-installed lights at Green Park, but both sides agreed they should not be used beforehand because they had not been tested in a major match.
England approached ICC match referee Roshan Mahanama before the start to register their concerns about only reducing the match to 49 overs and the lunch interval by 15 minutes.
"We knew the light could be an issue so we were trying to make sure we could get a game in this morning," said England coach Peter Moores. "The key for me is that we try to make sure it doesn't happen again. A lot of people have come to watch the game, you've got television so we have to do everything we possibly can to get the game in."
The contentious finale overshadowed a potentially tight finish, with England pressing hard for victory after comprehensive defeats in Rajkot and Indore.
Dismissed for an under-par total despite re-jigging their batting order, England responded to an aggressive bowling display from Andrew Flintoff which almost unsettled India enough to secure an unlikely victory.
Flintoff claimed a wicket in the first over of each of his three spells, using his pace to try and unsettle India's top order and, when that did not work, he was happy to wander down the wicket and engage in a war of words.
His antics prevented India's top order from dominating as they had in the previous two matches and ensured England remained in contention throughout their reply.
Flintoff removed dangerous opener Gautam Gambhir, and returned to end Virender Sehwag's dangerous innings of 68 off 76 balls.
He even succeeded where England had previously failed in the series and dismissed Yuvraj Singh before he had scored a century when he holed out in the deep midway through the batting power play with India desperate to get ahead of the required Duckworth-Lewis total.
Flintoff was backed up in his aggressive approach by Stuart Broad, while Graeme Swann justified his selection as a replacement for Steve Harmison by impressing on his return to briefly stop India's run flow.
Swann's recall was one of a number of changes, the most radical of which was allowing Essex's Ravi Bopara a chance to open alongside Ian Bell for the first time.
Bopara seized his chance and contributed to a 79-run opening stand, England's best of the series, which should have set the platform for a competitive target. But after being well placed on 80 for one after 15 overs, England again struggled against India's spinners with four wickets falling in ten overs to ensure they approached their batting powerplay without any of their big hitters.
Attempting to force the pace they lost their last five wickets in the final six overs of the innings, with spinner Harbhajan Singh finishing with three for 31.
But it was the lack of flexibility in the regulations which eventually sealed England's fate and prompted captain Kevin Pietersen to question the sixth match in the series at Guwahati, which is even further north than Kanpur. "They are going to have to change Guwahati," he said. "We're starting at 8:30am there but it's still not going to make too much of a difference.
"At 4:30pm it's dark here so it's going to go dark at 3pm or 3:30pm there, so an 8:30am start is not going to help much."
The full article contains 709 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
