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The T20 World Cup reaches its climax as New Zealand take on Australia at the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday. Both teams come into the contest with high expectations and knowing a win will etch their name in history books. Both teams have had a fair share of luck going into the final with dropped catches and dew factor coming in to play. One more factor that comes into consideration is the toss. Both New Zealand and Australia have won the toss in their respective semi finals and won, so how could a toss of coin decide the fate of the team?
While the Aussie captain Aaron Finch said he doesn’t care much about the toss in the build up to the final, numbers and history suggest otherwise. Five of the six teams who have won the toss in the T20 World Cup final have gone on to win the title. Matter of fact, the last four teams to win the toss in the final have all gone on to lift the trophy. Sri Lanka’s loss at Lord's in the 2009 final remains the only exception where team (Pakistan) winning the toss has lost the final.
When it comes to the T20 games played in night in Dubai, 16 of the 17 teams batting first have gone on to win the contest. Therefore, winning the toss and chasing the target under the lights remains a common denominator to get over the line. This particular set of 17 matches include both Indian Premier League (IPL) and T20Is. Interestingly, the only team to win in these 17 matches while defending the total was Chennai Super Kings (CSK) who lost the toss in the IPL 2021 final against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
While chasing targets has been the pattern of the tournament, this pattern is very much defined by the toss of the coin. If winning toss determines the fate of the team, an interesting fact is that New Zealand have lost both their previous World Cup finals in the 50-over format despite winning the toss. So, whose luck will shine when it comes to the toss remains to be seen.
