The toss
In cricket, a coin is tossed to determine which team bats first. This is known as the toss.
Before play the captain will inspect the pitch. Based on the pitch and weather conditions, he will select his final 11 players. If the pitch is soft or dusty, more spinners are selected; if the pitch is hard, additional fast bowlers are selected at the expense of spinners.
Half an hour before the start of play, the two captains under the supervision of the umpires toss a coin to determine who bats first. The captain who wins the toss, gets the option either to bat or bowl.
A tossing of the coin is done at the centre of the pitch under the supervision of the umpires. Here are some of the reasons why a team could bat or bowl first. Both captains exchange the team sheet prior to the toss following the toss the team composition cannot be changed
Batting first
If the team is uncertain about the nature of the pitch or simply wants to play safe, they bat first. If the opposition bowling is strong, batting first is a good option. Sometimes, the nature of the pitch deteriorates (i.e. makes batting difficult) as the game progresses. Hence batting first is a better option.
Another advantage of batting first is that once you have got a total on board; the other team still has to chase it, and anything could happen once they chase. Most of the weaker teams achieved great upsets over fancied teams by batting first and bowling the opposition out.
Batting second
The captain opts to bat second if he is confident that his team can successfully chase any total. Once the target is known, the team does not have to worry about setting a winnable score. The team just has to limit the opposition to a low score, and bat well to successfully chase the target. If the pitch does not deteriorate batting second, is usually a better option.
Another advantage of batting second is during day-night one-day international games, played under lights. In tropical venues, the cricket ball collects a lot of dew in the outfield. This results in a poor grip on the ball by the bowlers. With a moist ball is it difficult to spin and swing the ball.
