CT 2017: Match 2: Australia's possible DLS targets

The 2nd game of the Champions Trophy 2017 between Australia and New Zealand has been interrupted due to rain at the Edgbaston, Birmingham and the weather forecast doesn’t seem to be a positive one and the break could well result in the reduction of overs.

After winning the toss, New Zealand interestingly elected to bat first despite the flat track and with chances of reduction in overs, it might as well help the chasing side. Both the teams have chosen to go into the game without their lead spinners as the Australian XI doesn’t include Adam Zampa while New Zealand picked only Mitchell Santner and chose to leave Jeetan Patel out.

The Kiwis began their innings on a positive note with Martin Guptill striking a couple of early boundaries till the moment he got out to Josh Hazlewood after scoring 26 off 22 balls with 5 fours. Luke Ronchi and Kane Williamson ensured the run-rate of around 7 was constantly maintained as they were 67/1 after 9.3 overs at the time rain stopped play.

Rain halted the game at 11:19 AM local time (10:19 AM GMT) and there are 75 minutes available before the overs will start to be affected and Duckworth-Lewis Stern method comes into play. With New Zealand losing one wicket in 9.3 overs, if there will be a shorter overs reduction; say up to 10 overs, they will not benefit much from the DLS adjustment as Australia could end up chasing less than NZ’s total.

However, if more than 10 overs are reduced, Australia might need to chase a bit more than what New Zealand manages.

Here we look at some possible targets based on the Duckworth-Lewis Stern Method:

(Table updated after reduction of overs to 46)