IPL 2022: Is toss the boss, or is there any good total to defend in this IPL?

While we may talk easily about how one player is lucky enough to win the tosses and matches, toss here plays an important role. There are certain pitch conditions where winning or losing tosses defies your skills, and all you can do is embrace it to win it.

In T20 games, toss plays a crucial role. Sometimes the dew factor on the ground or the moisture content in the first few hours can change the game. Captain and other team members analyse the score before the start of the match. Different types of pitches play different roles for batters and bowlers. By winning the toss Captain can analyse that on this particular pitch, bat first or field first, which can give them an advantage.

In T20, toss becomes essential whenever there's a night game as dew becomes a considerable factor for the bowling team to defend the total.

Ex-Indian captain Virat Kohli said, 'If you lose the toss, embrace what's been asked of you.'

So far: Win the toss, win the match.

We saw three watches at three different venues at the inaugural weekend of the 15th edition of IPL, but the result was the same. The team winning the toss won the matches. Every captain, after winning toss, went on to bowl first, considering the dew factor, and their decision proved them correct. On both days, no matter what the total target was thrown on the scoreboard by the first team, the opposition found it comparatively easy to chase down with few balls to spare.

MATCH 1: Wankhede Stadium

Shreyas Iyer, captain of Kolkata Knight Riders, won the toss to bowl first against Chennai Super Kings. On the pitch of Wankhede, Chennai had a hard time fetching runs for their team while batting first. They were at 61/5 until the ball started coming well on the bat. Once that happened, they did not lose any wicket in the final 9 overs and scored 131 runs. However, the target of 132 runs was easily chased down by Kolkata with 9 balls and 6 wickets remaining.

MATCH 2: Brabourne Stadium

Though it was a day match and the toss seemed to have little to no effect as there was no dew factor involved, still, the chasing team succeeded. Delhi Capitals' captain Rishabh Pant won the toss and decided to bowl first against Mumbai Indians. Rohit Sharma and co. had a commendable time with the bat. Ishan Kishan played a fearless game to help the team post a 178-run target for the Delhi Capitals. On the other hand, Delhi Capitals struggled in the initial overs as they had lost five crucial top-order batters for 72 runs. However, their lower-order batters wisely took the innings and were able to sail through the target with 10 balls remaining in the end. 

MATCH 3: DY Patil Stadium

Following the same trend here, Mayank Agarwal, captain of Punjab Kings, won the toss and Royal Challengers Bangalore had to bat first. Faf du Plessis, the newly appointed captain, played a fiery inning of 88 runs in just 57 balls. Virat Kohli and Dinesh Karthik had a commendable time with the bat. In the third match itself, fans witnessed a target of 200-plus being put for the opposition. Looking at the target, it felt RCB had done a great job and might turn the fate of winning the toss to win the match. But in response to this, Punjab Kings played spell-bounding innings to reach the total in just 19 overs and win the match by five wickets. 

What to expect in the future?

Looking at the weather conditions in Mumbai and Pune, we might get to see the same trend among the toss winners. Any captain winning the toss would like to bowl first because later dew might affect the performance of their bowlers. This, however, might not be a compulsory trend in Day matches. Having said this, winning a toss will affect the captain's decision to bowl first, as winning the game comfortably highly depends on it.

Any team that reverses this trend will be super strong, and fans should keep their eyes on which team wins after losing the toss and bowling in the second inning.