The question of how does dew affect cricket always pops up in fans’ minds while watching night cricket games. Dew mostly comes in day-night games in cricket. It makes the pitch and outfield wet, making it easier for the batter to score runs. It makes it difficult for the bowler to grip the ball as it makes the ball wet. There is way more importance of dew in a cricket game than this. Dew also affects the toss decision and team plans. Understanding the importance of dew factor in a cricket game helps the team to make smarter decisions.
What Is Dew in Cricket?
Dew is the moisture that forms when the temperature drops at night. In cricket, it mostly appears at night or in the evening. The water settles on the ball, the outfield, and the pitch. This makes playing wet and slippery. It makes it very difficult for a bowler to grip the ball. Spin bowlers lose massive spin due to dew.
As a bowler loses the grip on the ball, the ball becomes difficult to handle. Therefore, batters becomes easy to score runs for their respective sides. Fast bowlers also get affected by the dew. Fast bowlers lose their accuracy to score a yorker or handle the line or length. Dew can change the game’s dimensions, making bowling and fielding more difficult.
When Does Dew Usually Occur?
Dew usually forms after sunset, when humidity increases and the temperature starts to drop. Coastal cities and places with high humidity face more dew. Winter seasons often have more dew than summer. Therefore, Night and day-night matches are significantly affected by the dew factor. Open grounds and less wind experience have heavier dew.
This particularly happens in 2nd innings of the game when the team is chasing the score. Stats indicate that teams that bat in dew conditions often score at 10-20% higher pace. The toss factor totally depends on the dew. Captains chose to field after winning the toss in those venues where dew plays a crucial role. Groundsmen try to control the dew factor to ensure neither team gets an unfair advantage. But unfortunately, it cannot be controlled 100%.
How Does Dew Affect Cricket
Dew plays a massive role in deciding the direction of a cricket game. It defines the behaviour of batting, bowling and the most crucial part of the game, the pitch. Therefore, teams must understand how to play in certain conditions.
How Dew Affects Bowling Performance
Bowing becomes challenging in dewy conditions. Therefore, teams prefer to bat when winning the toss. A fast bowler finds it hard to be accurate with a wet ball. Therefore, variation in early overs affects bowling team plans. At the same time, spin bowlers are affected the most by the dew. Spinner loses the grip on the ball. Therefore, spin bowlers lose spin in dew conditions. Fielding also affects massively in dew. As the ball and the outfield get wet, it makes it difficult to grab the ball. Therefore, captains must have strong plans to cope with such a situation.
How Dew Impacts Batting Conditions
As bowling becomes difficult, batting becomes very easy in the dew. As bowlers lose grip on the ball, batters have massive leverage to get the ball loose and score runs. Batter gets a massive chance to get boundaries and sixes with ease. Therefore, chasing teams gain significant benefits by scoring runs freely. That is why chasing sides score at a fast pace to dominate the bowling side.
Impact of Dew on Pitch Behaviour
Dew changes the behaviour of pitch. Dry pitches become smoother and faster when moisture settles. Spin can decrease, but bounce remains the same in pitch. Under some conditions, dew prevents cracks from opening, helping keep batting conditions stable. This often helps to bat aggressively in the 2nd innings. Fast bowlers lose speed, which makes it easier for batters to play them.
Top 5 Cricket Venues Affected by Dew
Dew is a major factor in day-night matches. It usually occurs in coastal cities, especially in subcontinental conditions. The dew factor plays an important role in Indian stadiums and venues in the UAE. Due to high humidity, these venues experience heavy dew during the games. Dubai Cricket Stadium is also a massive example of the importance of the dew factor.
In every critical game, toss plays the most important role. While playing in these stadium, dew forms heavily as teams chase the total in the 2nd innings. Also, in the first innings, fast bowler gets swing during the power play, and this venue has massive help for spinners as well. So, due plays a very important role in that situation.
Check out the top 5 cricket stadiums that experience massive dew.
Rank | Venue | Location | Notes on Dew Impact |
1 | Eden Gardens | Kolkata, India | Heavy dew in night matches; affects bowlers |
2 | M. Chinnaswamy Stadium | Bengaluru, India | Dew settles quickly; easier batting second innings |
3 | Dubai International Stadium | Dubai, UAE | Coastal humidity causes wet outfield |
4 | Sharjah Cricket Stadium | Sharjah, UAE | Dew often affects toss decisions |
5 | MA Chidambaram Stadium | Chennai, India | Wet outfield; bowlers lose grip on ball |
Conclusion
This article will clear all the doubts about the question How Does Dew Affect Cricket. Dew changes the pitch behavior, batting and bowling as well. It often helps team chasing easily in the 2nd innings of the game. Captains and team managements built solid plans to reduce the effect of dew in the game as a bowling side in the 2nd innings.
Dew cannot entirely help the teams chase the total. It is still in the hands of teams how they play better cricket than the other side. By Playing better teams still have the better chance to win the game. That is why dew can be a natural benefit for one side, but skills and game awareness cannot be compared with anything else in a cricket game. Check out what box cricket is.
FAQs
1. Why does dew form in cricket matches?
Dew forms when temperatures drop at night and humidity rises. It mostly occurs in evening or night matches, especially in coastal or humid cities.
2. Which team usually benefits from dew?
The team batting second usually benefits. Bowlers struggle with grip, making it easier for batters to score runs.
3. Can grounds staff prevent dew completely?
No, they cannot remove dew entirely. Covers, super soppers, and chemicals can reduce it, but natural moisture still affects the game.
