X AND Y

In the IPL 2018, after Y overs, Mumbai Indians were XY-0 and the run rate was X.YX. Find X and Y.

Miss Malini wrote the sum on the board and asked her 7^th class students to work it out. She settled in her seat, after looking at the next problem to be given when a sweet voice queried.

“Ma’am, are we allowed to use our laptops ma’am?”

“Sure. Go ahead. You will have to explain your logic in arriving at the answer.”

“OK ma’am. Thank you.”

Students started vigorously working.

A voice said, “Ma’am, are we allowed to use our cell phones? Please ma’am. Only once.”

“OK. Go ahead.”

She was about to get up from her seat when another voice asked, “Ma’am, may we know against whom Mumbai Indians were playing? Please ma’am.”

“Is it relevant?”

“May be ma’am. I think so.”

“How?”

“I’ll explain it in my logic ma’am. Please ma’am.”

Miss Malini referred to her notes and said, “It was against KKR.” She then stepped down the stage and inspected what students were doing. They had formed their own small groups and were vigorously discussing, something she encouraged among her students.

True their being good students, students had opened their laptops and were using spreadsheet to find the answer. The discussions were mostly about the logic of the formula that needs to be entered in the cells.

Five minutes later, one student called out saying, “Ma’am. I got the answer.”

“Good. I am more interested in your logical reasoning. Come to the board and explain.”

The student came to the front of the class. He explained, “From the question, it is evident that the two conditions are X and Y are integers and so have to be between 1 and 9. And the score has to be below 100. I checked at www.cricbuzz.com for the matches between MI and KKR. There were two in the preliminary rounds. I checked the commentary to see the run rates at the end of the overs. I found that 89-0 at the end of 9 overs gave me 9.88888… or simply 9.89. Thus I found the answer.

Miss Malini resigned after the class.