Introducing the Duckworth–Lewis method
The 1992 Cricket World Cup was very historic due to many special initiatives, which were the first time in the CWC history, like coloured jersey, white-ball game, day/night affairs etc. Later, a controversy was created during the semi-final of that tournament which triggered to introduce the Duckworth–Lewis (D/L) method, which we now call as the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method (DLS).
It was the second semi-final of that tournament between England and South Africa at Sydney (22nd March 1992). While that game had many rain interruptions, the most talking point was the last rain-interruption. When South Africa had to score 23 more runs in the last 13 balls, and four wickets were still in hands, the rain interrupted the game.
Later, when that game restarted, South Africa got the target of 21 runs on the only ball (earlier the SCG scoreboard and the TV coverage wrongly showed South Africa needed 22 runs off seven balls, as well as, 22 runs off one ball).
Many were not happy with that revised target incident which forced to introduce the D/L method. According to the ICC, the D/L method or presently known as DLS method “is a formula to fairly calculate the winning side when inclement weather intervenes, and the match is interrupted, which includes re-calculating totals when time is lost in the match.”