The International Cricket Council defended a farcical finish to India-Pakistan match on Sunday, after rain left a seemingly impossible target for Sarfaraz Ahmed’s led Pakistan.

Rain interrupted the game when Pakistan were 166/6 in 35 overs while chasing an initial target of 337. Had the match ended then, Pakistan would have lost by 86 runs under Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method.

When the game resumed after rain, umpires decided Pakistan need further 136 runs in just five overs, to reach revised D/L score of 302 in 40 overs.

"Cricket is prone to farce - this is up there, this is a top-five moment," said Jonathan Agnew, the BBC cricket correspondent.

Fellow BBC radio commentator Graeme Swann also questioned umpires decision to leave Pakistan with a required rate of 28/over.

The former England off-spinner said: "If you're at home and you are trying to explain this to children just say that sometimes grown-ups do things that don't make sense."

Unsurprisingly Pakistan got nowhere near to the target and had to face an 89-run defeat under D/L, with only Afghanistan below them in the points tally.

But an ICC spokesman told AFP that “With net run-rate a potential tie-breaker in qualifying the top four for the semi-finals if teams are level on points, it would have been wrong to end the game any earlier and so, at the very least, deny Pakistan the chance to boost their rate.”

(With Inputs from Cricket Next/ AFP)