Coin toss, dew proving key as chasers dominate at World Cup

Ten games into the main group stage of this year's T20 World Cup and winning the toss seems to be proving vital to teams' chances of winning the match.

So far, the formula in the UAE has been simple: win the toss, bowl first, chase down the total and win.

It's a model followed in both of Australia's games so far, including Thursday night's win over Sri Lanka in Dubai.

In all men's T20s internationals since the start of 2010, 582 have been won by the team batting first and 582 by the chasing team.

But at this World Cup, nine out of the 10 matches since the Super 12 stage started have been won by teams chasing.

The only exception has been Afghanistan's 130-run pounding of Scotland on Monday, where the order of innings would likely have been irrelevant regardless.

Dew has largely been considered the biggest factor, with the ball becoming harder for bowlers to grip later in games.

It was also evident in IPL matches played on the same grounds in the past month, with the chasing team winning 15 of the last 20 games.

"When you're out there and you're running around I think the sweat comes down to hands, so that becomes a little bit of an issue," David Warner said.

While players believed conditions were dryer in Australia's win over Sri Lanka, the low-scoring nature of the tournament could also be playing a part.

"Just being able to assess bowling first, what you have to do from a batting group, that gives you a little bit of the upper edge," Warner said.

"But then again, if someone gets 190 or 200, you have to go hard. 

"So I think if you bat you've got to have the intent when you bat first. It can be a little bit difficult but you can't be too tentative.

"You actually have to try and assess as fast as you can."

Batting has also become easier later at night with the often slow wickets becoming quicker as the ball skids onto the bat.

"The toss definitely is going to be a factor in this tournament especially," India captain Virat Kohli said this week.

"We could not even get dot balls in (against Pakistan) because the pitch was obviously providing a big pace for the batsman to work with.

"The slower balls were not holding up as much.

"If the dew keeps creeping in in the later half of the game, you need those extra runs in the first half then."

2021 Men's T20 World Cup

Australia's squad

Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins (vc), Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa. Travelling reserves: Dan Christian, Nathan Ellis, Daniel Sams

Australia's matches

Oct 23: Australia beat South Africa by five wickets

Oct 28: Australia beat Sri Lanka by seven wickets

Oct 30 v England in Dubai (6pm local time, 1am Oct 31 AEDT)

Nov 4 v Bangladesh in Dubai (2pm local time, 9pm AEDT)

Nov 6 v West Indies in Abu Dhabi (2pm local time, 9pm AEDT)

All matches live and exclusive on Fox Cricket, available on Kayo Sports.

Click here for the full 2021 ICC T20 World Cup schedule

Click here for the full squads for all 16 teams

Super 12 stage

Group 1: England, Australia, South Africa, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh

Group 2: India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Afghanistan, Scotland, Namibia