For the last three seasons in the county championship the away side can opt to bowl first without there being a toss. If the away side doesn't take that option there is a toss in the usual way.
I thought it would be interesting to see what impact this rule had both on the decisions made by captains and the results of the games. This is the first of two posts on this topic and covers the first 40 games of the 2018 season (i.e. up to the round of matches ending 14th May.)
In this period two games were abandoned without a ball being bowled. Of the other 38, on 24 occasions the away side took the option of bowling first. But not with a notable degree of success. In nine of those gains the side sent in to bat won. The tactic of bowling first was successful on 7 occasions with 8 draws.
Of the 14 games where the was a toss the side winning the toss chose to bat first on 13 occasions. Five of those bat first decisions resulted in a win, with four defeats and four draws. Just one brave skipper bucked the trend, won the toss and bowled and Paul Plucky Collingwood came up with a win. This might be seen as a triumph for experience and sagacity but in that game Leicestershire, put into bat, scored 440 and skittled Durham for just 184. With the follow on enforced Durham scored 400 and bowled out Leicestershire to win. Whatever he may say I don't believe that was how Collingwood planned it.
So the evidence would seem to suggest it doesn't really matter if you bowl or bat first. Teams inserted by an away captain won slightly more games than they lost as did teams who won the toss and chose to bat but the differences are small. Interestingly a Cricinfo review of whether it was better to bat first or second in test matches between 2000 - 2013 found England was the best country to bat first in. Unlike India which is a bowl first country for the period. Which is completely opposite to what I would have expected, sometimes looking at the numbers does help.
What also comes out of the 2018 county championship figures is that captains don't have much idea about what a pitch is going to do. Of the 24 times a captain thought they should forgo the toss and bowl first, only 7 came up with a win.
The next post will look at the first 40 games 2015 season (i.e. the last season before away sides were able to put the opposition in without a toss) to see if there was a different pattern in results and in particular if sides choosing to bowl first had a better record.
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