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The group phase is over. Net Run Rate was used as tiebreaker with teams tied on points and number of wins to decide line-up for quarter-finals. In a game of 'limited' overs, 'Ball Difference' can be used as an alternate tiebreaker by deciding the margin of victory by using the number of balls remaining at the point of victory, already widely used when the side batting second wins. For a team winning after batting first, Ball Difference can be calculated as the number of balls between the precise delivery when the beaten team was outscored till the end of innings (end of overs or the delivery when last wicket falls). Ball Difference(BD) is an easy to understand number which can be added(or subtracted) after each league match. England lost to Ireland after scoring 327 but won a low scoring match against South Africa defending 171. Both were very close games despite a big difference in number of runs scored and the narrow margins are reflected in the BD for these games. England lost to Ireland by 5 BD and beat South Africa by 3 BD. Ball Difference is a simple and fair measure which can be used to compare the margin of victory across games played in very different conditions. England played out close games with their largest win over West Indies of only 16 BD while group A witnessed a number of one sided games such as New Zealand beating Kenya by 252 BD.

At present, Net Run rate gets a higher priority followed by higher number of wickets taken per balls bowled. Head-to-head record is used only if teams are still equal.

I also think that if only two teams are tied on points and number of wins then Head-to-head record get a higher priority.

In Group B, India defeated Bangladesh who tamed Ireland who outscored England who defended a small total against South Africa who beat West Indies who won against Nederlands. Such results may lead to a three-way-tie where we need a tiebreaker.

The interrupted games where D/L method is used will need some interpolation to compute the Ball Difference.
Various match scenarios and the arithmetic for an interrupted game are discussed on my post http://pandimi.wordpress...11/03/01/bd-arithmetic/ ‎