Henriques suggests 'fairer' rule for rain affected matches

Moises Henriques and his Sydney Sixers teammates left Saturday night’s loss to the Hobart Hurricanes feeling hard done by, after a short rain delay altered the match conditions and made an improbable run chase, even less likely.

Already requiring a mammoth total of 214 after Matthew Wade’s scintillating 93 from 46 balls, a less than 10-minute rain delay in the fifth over of the Sixers’ innings drastically altered the course the match would take.

Despite the showers passing quickly, the second innings was reduced to 18 overs, and the total revised to 196, increasing the required run rate by almost half a run per over.

But the real blow for the Sixers was the loss of one of their two power surge overs, meaning they would have to chase the remaining 155 runs without the freedom of six balls with three less outfielders.

The KFC BBL|11 playing conditions stipulate that the loss of even one over due to rain will result in the removal of a power surge over, with Saturday’s 18-over second innings seeing it become available after the ninth over and needing to be taken between overs 10-17.

Henriques, who has started the new BBL season in blistering form with two half centuries and 26 not out on Saturday night, was still frustrated when asked about the impact of the rain delay post-game.

"As sometimes is the case, Duckworth-Lewis-(Stern) wasn’t exactly kind to us. We lost a (power) surge over and only 16 or 17 runs got taken off their score for two overs, so it pumped the run rate up a fair bit," Henriques said.

"When the opposition team gets to use their full surge and you don’t get to use yours, you do feel a little bit robbed.

"But they’re the rules, we’ve got to play by them and try to find a way to adapt and still win those games."

Alluding to a disproportionate outcome for his side given the short length of the rain delay, Henriques proposed an alternate model for the power surge in rain affected matches.

"I still don’t see why you can’t have an over and then say four balls in the next over that are under surge rules, and just play two balls that aren’t," he said.

"It would make more sense and I think it would be fairer for all the teams.

"The surge has completely changed the game.

"Last year we saw how much it pumped the average score up compared to years gone by."

Another grievance the Sixers' skipper voiced was the Bash Boost point going to the victorious team in matches impacted by rain.

Despite the rule, which states that "if the Bash Boost point has not been awarded by the first interruption, then the Bash Boost point will be awarded to the overall winning team", being outlined in the BBL|11 playing conditions, Henriques said some clarification upon re-entering the field would’ve been helpful.

"We didn’t get any communication about what the boost point was until about the seventh over where they just said, 'it's going to go to the winning team'," Henriques said.

"I think some communication there … before we walk back out onto the field would be nice."

Despite the loss, Henriques was full of praise for the Hurricanes, who bounced back from their opening match against the Sixers and claimed their first win of the BBL season.

"They (Hobart) were too good tonight, I thought they defended really well with the ball, they were quite clinical there," he said.

"If we were just able to drag them back 15 or 20 (runs) with the ball, and then if we scored 15 more with the bat, it would’ve been a much closer game."

The Sixers sit atop of the ladder after the first week of BBL|11 and will next take on the Melbourne Stars at the MCG on Wednesday.

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