Anybody heard of “Jayadevan method” in cricket (named after Prof V Jayadevan of our College)?

May 10, 2018May 10, 2018 Dr. Krishnachandran CE

The Jayadevan method (also called the Jayadevan rule or the VJD method) in cricket was in the news recently when Kolkata Knight Riders captain Dinesh Karthik wanted the current Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) rain-rule method to be replaced by Jaydevan (VJD) method, after losing their curtailed IPL 2018 encounter to Kings XI Punjab by nine wickets, on 06 April 2108. The Jayadevan system is a method for calculating target scores in interrupted one-day and Twenty20 cricket matches. The method was devised by V Jayadevan who is currently working as Professor (Visiting) in the CE Dept of the College. (To read the Times of India news in full, click here.)

VJD method

The VJD method is built around two curves. The first curve depicts the “normal” run getting pattern; that is, when there is no interruption and the side is expecting to bat its full quota of overs. The second curve (“target curve”) indicates how the batting side should “speed up” after an interruption. The “normal” curve takes into account both the percentage of overs played and the percentage of wickets lost. The “target” curve, which is used to set revised targets, only considers the percentage of overs played.

More details

There is an article in Wkipedia containing a detailed account of the system. The same may be accessed at this link: Jayadevan’s system.
Prof Jayadevan has published a paper on his method in Current Science as early as September 2002. The full text of the paper can be accessed at the following link: “A new method for the computation of target scores in interrupted, limited over cricket matches“. The paper makes interesting reading because it uses polynomial regression to obtain a relation between percentage of runs and percentage of overs. Two relations have been obtained: one for the “normal score” and one for the “target score”.
The readers are also urged to read the Wikipedia article on the DLS method at this link: Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method.

Interestingly, from an academic point of view, both the methods can be thought of as applications of mathematics in cricket!