Ryan ten Doeschate Addresses India’s Toss and Dew Challenge Ahead of 3rd ODI

Ryan ten Doeschate discussed India’s preparation to overcome persistent toss losses and dew in the ODI series against South Africa.

India must overcome persistent toss losses and heavy dew to win their ODI series decider against South Africa in Visakhapatnam on Saturday. The series is level at 1-1, with India repeatedly batting first in difficult conditions.

The team has lost the toss in both matches and won the first while losing the second and multiple recent games. Dew in the evening has made bowling second exceptionally hard. Assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate provided insight into their preparations and challenges.

“The dew factor is, we’re actually trying to put a number on it and it varies between 10 and 20% [in terms of] what a big difference it makes [to the result] I think we’re one in a million statistically at the moment [the probability of losing 20 straight tosses], so if we can go two million tomorrow, that’ll be pretty impressive. But again, it’s a bit of a joke, but the responsibility or the preparation is to beat whatever is put in front of us and eventually we’re going to win a toss anyway,” India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

Adapting to New Playing Conditions

The team is practicing with wet balls and re-evaluating target scores. A recent ICC rule change, moving to one ball after 34 overs, adds complexity in dewy conditions.

“We are doing all the practical prep stuff, guys bowling with wet balls. Again, you know, like setting up our store to get a premium score, figuring out how to defend, what is best to bowl with the wet ball when there is dew on the grass.”

“The two balls. if I just think about it logically, the whole point of going to one ball after 34 overs is that the ball does get a chance to wear and to get a bit softer. But the flip side is that [when there is dew] you have got one ball that is getting more wet essentially. I think the umpires have been very good in allowing ball changes, but then of course you end up getting a slightly harder ball which negates the whole point of going down to the one ball,” Ryan said.

Batting targets have been revised upward due to the dew. The team is also discussing start times, though ten Doeschate acknowledged broadcast constraints.

“At the start of the first game, we thought 320 sort of par, and then we put a premium at 350 and we thought that the game in Raipur was the same. We thought 360, even given the dew coming, it was a good effort to get that score,” ten Doeschate said. “You always want more runs and again the conversations have been around how can we maximise,” Ryan concluded.