Duckworth-Lewis-Stern explained in plain English
What the DLS method does when rain shortens a match, and why a revised target is not just a pro-rata cut.
When weather cuts a limited-overs match short, the side batting second cannot simply be asked to score a proportion of the first innings total. A team with all ten wickets in hand can attack in a way a team with three left cannot. The Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method exists to account for that.
Resources, not just overs
DLS treats a team’s batting potential as a “resource” made up of two things: overs still to be faced and wickets still in hand. At the start of an innings a side has 100% of its resources. Every over that passes and every wicket that falls uses some of them up.
How a target is revised
If the second innings is shortened, the method compares the resources each side had. A team that loses overs but keeps all its wickets loses less than the raw over count suggests, so the revised target is set from that ratio rather than from the overs alone.
Minimum overs
A result needs a minimum number of overs to have been bowled to the second innings. In T20 cricket that is generally five overs per side, though competition rules can differ.