India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate admitted that dew is having an impact on the matches in the ongoing three-match ODI series against South Africa at home. India managed to win a thrilling match at Ranchi but lost the high-scoring match at Raipur as South Africa leveled the ODI series 1-1.
With the ongoing three-match ODI series now tied at 1-1, the final match in Visakhapatnam on Saturday, December 6 turns out to be the series decider, and dew will once again play a big role. However, Men in Blue is preparing from every aspect to deal with this issue.
With dew looming over the deciding match in Vizag, India faced the curse of a one in a million toss.
But what has made things difficult has been India’s incredible string of bad luck at the toss, which has completely changed the way each match plays out. Ryan ten Doeschate admitted that the hosts are frustrated with the pattern, but it is something that is out of their control.
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Notably, India losing twenty consecutive tosses is something that statistically happens only in a once in a million scenarios, and the assistant coach joked that if they lost again in the series decider in Visakhapatnam, it would be like entering the bad luck zone of about two million to one.
“The dew factor is something we’re really trying to put a number on, and it varies between 10 to 20%,” Ryan ten Doeschate said in the pre-match press conference, as quoted by ESPN Cricinfo. [in terms of] what a difference it makes [to the result]I think statistically at this point we’re one in a million [the probability of losing 20 straight tosses],
India trained with wet balls before the important match in Vizag
The coach further added, “So, if we can go to two million tomorrow, that would be very impressive. But still, it’s a bit of a joke, but the responsibility or preparation is to beat whatever is put in front of us, and ultimately we are going to win the toss anyway.”
He also revealed that the team is doing all the practical preparations behind the scenes to be prepared for the dew in Visakhapatnam, such as bowling with wet balls to understand how much the grip changes.
Ten Doeschate further explained, “Again, you know, like setting up our shop to get premium scores, figuring out how to defend, and knowing what’s best to bowl with a wet ball when there’s dew on the grass.”
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Ryan ten Doeschate highlights flaw of ODI’s new ball system
Meanwhile, there is a new rule in ODI cricket that has changed the way bowlers and batsmen handle the game. Previously, teams used two new balls – one from each end. But this made batting much easier as both balls remained hard for a long time and were easy to hit even in the last overs.
To fix this problem, ICC introduced a new rule from July. Now, after 34 overs, the bowling team has to choose one of those two balls to use for the final 16 overs. Ryan ten Doeschate explained that the purpose of using only one ball is to make it old, soft and difficult for the batsmen to attack.
But this plan does not work well when there is dew and the Indian coach said that it is his responsibility to deal with these challenges and find solutions.
He signed off by saying, “Two balls. If I think about it logically, the whole point of taking one ball after 34 overs is to give the ball a chance to rub in and get a little softer. But the other side is [when there is dew] You have a ball that is essentially getting more wet. I think the umpires have been very good about allowing the ball to change, but then obviously you get a slightly harder ball, which defeats the whole point of going to a ball.