Toss (cricket)

In cricket, the toss is the flipping of a coin to determine which captain will have the right to choose whether their team will bat or field at the start of the match.

Based on the pitch and weather conditions, the captains select their final eleven players.

Half an hour before the start of play, the two captains convene and exchange team selection sheets.

[citation needed] In 2018, the International Cricket Council (ICC) proposed the scrapping of the traditional coin toss in Test cricket matches, citing instances when host nations were criticised for, and sometimes found guilty of, changing the pitch conditions to suit themselves when playing this longest format of the game.

[9] For the 2018–19 Big Bash League season in Australia, the toss was replaced by a bat flip, with "hills and flats" used instead of heads or tails.

[12] Sometimes the nature of the pitch deteriorates while the game progresses, making batting more difficult especially if facing spin bowling.

The team just has to limit the opposition to a low score, and bat well to successfully chase the target.

The difficulty in holding the ball also means that the bowler is more likely to be inaccurate, giving the batsmen more ill-directed deliveries to hit.