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Rain rule in the tournament raises debate following the IPL eliminator

[caption id="attachment_45124" align="alignnone" width="580"] Legendary cricketer Sunil Gavaskar with Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan.[/caption] Internet Desk: The rain rule in the Indian Premier League has come in for a huge criticism following last night’s rain truncated IPL Eliminator between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders. The match which started on Wednesday night finished in the wee hours of Thursday, thereby sparking the debate for the need of the rain rule that is being followed by the cash rich league. It also brings to the limelight the need of a reserve day for a rain truncated match in the IPL Eliminator and Qualifiers. Legendary cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has slammed the IPL for its rules of not having a reserve day for playoffs despite there being a break of 1 day between the first and the second eliminator and both the matches being played at the same venue. According to the prevailing rules Knight Riders could have got a full quota of 20 overs if the match started before 11:52 pm. The cut off time for the minimum overs to constitute a match i.e., 5 overs was 12:58 am while the cut-off time for the super over was 1:20 am. The Knight Rider’s were left with a target of 129 runs to win in the stipulated 20 overs. But torrential rains, mid-way in the innings forced a revised target for the KKR. Gautam Gambhir’s team required to score 48 runs from 6 overs, which they eventually achieved with four balls to spare. Gavaskar slammed the timings claiming that it is unfair on the part of the organizers to expect the spectators in the stadium and at home to wait until 1.20 for a match to start. He also claimed that he personally wouldn't wait until 1.30 for a cricket match to be played. He bashed the organizers stating that as there is a day's break between today's eliminator and the next match, arrangements could easily be made to have a reserve day and the rest of the match could be played tomorrow with an early start around 7-7.30 p.m. Knight Rider’s principal owner Shah Rukh Khan also supported the idea of having an extra day in the Eliminator. The Bollywood superstar tweeted: “Glad to be on the winning side tonite. But playoffs need to have an extra day in case of an abandoned match………………………”   Kolkata Knight Rider's bowler Nathan Coulter Nile also expressed his frustration of having to play after midnight. "Well, no one really got nervous until when they went out there for the last look at about 12:40 am. It sorted of looked like I didn't wanna play. I think there is so much time, rules probably need to be looked at, I mean its 2 am, you can't be playing cricket at 2 o' clock. But I wasn't nervous at all. There was so much time, we had to get on," he said after the match.