The first match of the Nepal Premier League saw defending champions Lumbini Lions win the toss, elect to field against Sudurpaschim Royals, and win by seven wickets. Coming to the 14th match on Thursday afternoon, Janakpur Bolts also decided to field first after winning the toss against Lumbini. Janakpur did not win this one.

Until Thursday, only one team has won the toss and elected to bat first. In the fifth match of the season, Kathmandu Gorkhas, had won while batting first against Janakpur.

But the Gorkhas elected to field first when Karan KC won the toss against Biratnagar Kings in the second match on Thursday. And Kathmandu won.

It has been clear throughout the season: winning the toss has not been beneficial enough. Of the 14 matches—excluding the abandoned match between Lumbini Lions and Chitwan Rhinos—teams winning the toss elected to field first in 13 instances. And only in seven of those matches have the team that won the toss won the match.

It is normal for teams playing at TU Stadium under floodlights to elect to field first. It is because the darker it gets, the dew makes it more difficult for the bowling side. However, teams are also choosing to field first in the afternoon fixture.

Captains are taking advantage of fresh Kirtipur pitch during the first innings as residual moisture from overnight fog keeps the pitch damp in the first innings, making it difficult for batting while offering initial seam movement for bowlers. Teams then back their batters to comfortably hunt down targets once the surface bakes out and flattens later in the afternoon.

When Janakpur skipper Harmeet Singh won the toss on Thursday afternoon, he decided to field first after having a good look at the pitch. Had Lumbini’s captain Rohit Kumar Paudel won the toss, he would have also chosen to bowl first.

But why are teams winning only half the times they have won the toss and elected to bowl first? From what Janakpur Bolts’ head coach and captain suggested after their loss against Lumbini, it was “poor fielding”.

Speaking at the post-match presentation after losing by 16 runs, Singh said that they gave away extra runs due to misfields and dropped catches. “Had we not given those extra runs…,” Singh said.

It is what Janakpur’s coach Shivnarine Chanderpaul also reiterated in the post-match press conference. “We did not field well and we did not bat well,” he said. “We should have restricted the other side [Lumbini] to a lower target.”

But is it just the wicket condition that appeals to the teams to field first? No. In the shortest format, the teams, all around the world, want to chase.

Espncricinfo, the leading cricket news and statistics portal, had written an article—Why are teams choosing to chase more often in T20—in January 2017. The article was based on teams preferring to field first in the Big Bash League.

It was a different scenario in the early years of cricket. As Ian Chappell, Australian captain in the early 1970s, used to say: When you win the toss, you bat first nine times out of ten; the tenth time you think about it and bat first anyway.

But now, teams want to bat second.

Some say the conditions are more batsman-friendly recently as, especially, T20 cricket sees smaller boundaries and flat tracks. Some say, it is easier when you just chase.

“The level of skills batsmen have shown, the improvement dealing with levels of risk and finding boundaries means batting units or teams in general are quite comfortable knowing what their target is,” Eoin Morgan, England’s limited-overs captain from 2015 to 2022, was quoted in the article by Espncricinfo. “The unease of posting a score, or knowing what a good score is, is becoming more and more difficult.”

It was probably what happened with Biratnagar Kings and Karnali Yaks in the third season, as they lost despite posting 180+ targets. 

Meanwhile, the third season of the NPL has also shown that the teams losing the toss are not affected if they have the “intent”. 

For instance, Biratnagar, invited to bat first by Sudurpaschim in the night match on October 31, had posted 105/2 in the fixture reduced to five overs as Shehan Jayasuriya, Lokesh Bam and Andre Russell came with the decisive intent to score big. It was a different thing that they did not have to worry about the wickets much in the 30-ball innings. The Royals were then restricted to 70/3 in the chase and lost by 35 runs.

When the intent was missing, Biratnagar, again invited to bat first, were all out with only 83 runs in 18.3 overs against Kathmandu on Thursday. And the Gorkhas chased it comfortably in 9.4 overs, on the back of David Warner’s unbeaten 44 off 24.

“Teams should be ready to bat or bowl first,” Dhammika Prasad, Biratnagar’s head coach, said after the loss. “Mostly, the batters should step up—either to post a big total or chase one.”