Despite India being the host, it has been forced to organise the ICC T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates. The change of venues, though, hasn’t changed the impact of the toss on the outcome of a game.
As was witnessed during the last week of the Indian Premier League last month, all three venues in the UAE have witnessed dew making an impact in the latter half of every game. No wonder then that of the first seven Super 12 matches, six matches have seen teams fielding first walking away with full points. The trend is similar to Indian conditions; the prospect of the dew effectively means the captain winning the toss has no qualms in electing to field.
“Yes, toss definitely is going to be a factor in this tournament especially. If the dew keeps creeping in in the latter half the game, you need those extra runs in the first half then,” India captain Virat Kohli said after its loss to Pakistan in Dubai on Sunday night.
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The last thing that a World Cup requires is the toss dictating results of games. But a combination of sticky surfaces and the dew making an impact only in the second innings with the match timings adjusted primarily to suit television viewership in the Indian sub-continent has resulted in the teams being forced to strategise around the dew - and toss, as a result - factor.
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson, who captained the Hyderabad franchise in the IPL, also admitted that dew is emerging as a key element.
“A bit of dew as well, which is something we saw a little bit at the back-end of the IPL, so a number of different factors that come with the conditions. We were aware of that going into it,” Williamson said after the Black Caps went down to Pakistan in Sharjah on Tuesday.
New Zealand, in fact, came closest to defending a target after Afghanistan’s crushing win against Scotland earlier in the week. However, Pakistan’s big-hitters saw the team through.
South Africa, on the other hand, restricted West Indies power-hitters in Dubai on Tuesday and then chased the target down comfortably even in a day game, when the dew wasn’t a factor at all. “The wickets are not particularly flat. They offer something for the bowlers. We are just going to have to bat well and assess and play according to the conditions. We definitely have to adapt, and that’s the challenge that we're faced with,” pacer Kagiso Rabada had said ahead of the game.
Rabada may have been referring to the Proteas but it seems all the teams will have to adapt with the toss and the dew factors for progressing to the knockouts.
Super 12 results
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