Mumbai, one of the title contenders in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, won two out of three matches in the Super League. Yet they had to be knocked out of the tournament. After this, captain Shardul Thakur expressed sharp anger over the Net Run Rate (NRR) rule in the tournament.
According to tournament rules, the net run rate is calculated afresh after entering the Super League. And if multiple teams are tied on equal points after three Super League matches, NRR is considered instead of head-to-head results.
This has hurt teams like Mumbai, Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh. Hyderabad was ahead on the path to the final after beating Mumbai and Rajasthan in the Super League. They had an excellent NRR of +2.999. They just needed to beat Haryana to reach the final. But losing to Haryana by 124 runs in the last match dashed Hyderabad's hopes.
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Similarly, Andhra also bid farewell despite winning two out of three matches. Even though they beat Jharkhand in the last match, they were confused due to wrong calculations. The Andhra camp thought they would qualify if they restricted Jharkhand within 173 runs. Later, it was understood that this limit was actually 186. If the players had known earlier that there was scope up to 186, they would have planned differently. Confusion arose due to a lack of clarity.
Mumbai faced the same situation. Rajasthan chased 216 runs for 4 wickets. Mumbai needed to chase this run in 10.2 overs to win, which would have improved their NRR. But even though they won with 11 balls remaining, they could not score those runs in the required time. After this, Shardul said the rule needs reconsideration, and NRR should not be calculated afresh in the Super League.
Shardul told Sportstar, "This is not a disappointing campaign for us at all, because we played good cricket throughout the tournament and lost only two matches. Hyderabad also lost, but due to that stupid rule, NRR was calculated again."
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He mentioned that Mumbai lost only two matches in the entire tournament, while Hyderabad lost three. Haryana qualified despite losing two in the group stage and one in the Super League. Shardul claimed, "The NRR rule cannot be changed again before reaching the final. It feels like two separate tournaments are being played. There is no point in keeping a separate NRR for the group stage and Super League. No matter how many matches you win, you can be knocked out of the tournament. This is what happened. So this is unfair for teams that are playing well."
He further added, "This definitely needs to be thought about. I think the same NRR should be calculated from the first match till the end of the Super League, so that all teams get equal opportunity."
