As Virat Kohli scores back-to-back tons, why is dew hogging headlines along?

The ball turns almost into a bar of soap, soaking up more and more water droplets every time a batsman hits the ball along the ground. The wet ball becomes very difficult to grip and it takes out the spinners from the game. Since they can’t grip, they are unable to give the ball enough revolutions needed for turn, and since the pitch surface too is sprinkled with dew, the ball doesn’t grip there either. Hence there isn’t much chance of the ball turning. It usually just skids on straight to the batsmen.

What are the hurdles for fast bowlers?

Just like the spinners, they too struggle to grip the ball, and resultantly most of the stock deliveries are undeliverable. Unless you are able to firmly grip and let your fingers work on the ball, deliveries like leg cutter or swing becomes impossible to bowl. The yorkers too are difficult to pull off as a slippery damp ball isn’t suited for that delivery and invariably, the attempted yorkers turn into full tosses.

So, how did Indians try to manage the dew situation?

The Indian seamers relied largely on the slower change-of-pace deliveries, especially the slow-bouncers. Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, and to an extent Prasidh Krishna too, but mainly the first two, largely dealt in slower ones that were delivered like off-breaks – and they banged it into the turf short. Even here with the slower ones, they were vastly restricted. If they tried to bowl the full-length slower ones, the chances of it slipping out of hand and turning into full tosses were high. If they tried other forms of slower ones – be in the back-of-hand or knuckleball-release, the wet ball would have made it very tough to execute. So they held the ball like an offspinner would and banged it short like a bouncer. In the second game, the likes of Donald Brevis and co. did find it initially difficult to handle that but since that was the main staple form of ball, they eventually got used to it and started to flat-bat the ball to boundaries.

How did India then win the first game?

The real damage came via delicious irony. The dew did play a huge part from the 25tth over mark in the chase, but earlier on, it lightly moisturised the surface, enabling the new ball to skid through. And Harshit Rana and Arshdeep Singh were spot on with their lengths, and their skiddy deliveries sent half the South Africa packing.  But such was the role of dew, that despite that initial collapse, South Africa could recover once dew started falling copiously making bowling difficult. And Marco Jansen smashed the living daylights of the bowlers to nearly seize a heist.
In the second game, South Africa were more cautious against the new ball, and took care to bat through without much early damage. With wickets in hand, the chase became a stroll in the second half of their innings.

Did dew affect any other facet of the game?

Yes, it nearly killed a new rule in the game enforced recently by the International Cricket Conference. Ranchi was the first game in India with the new rule. Usually, ODIs are played with two balls – one ball dedicated to each end, thus effectively a ball is used for just 25 overs in the 50-over game. For a long time, it has been debated that this rule doesn’t allow the bowlers to bring reverse swing into play. Without the natural wear and tear of the ball that can take more than 35 overs, the ball doesn’t get rough enough to be ready for reverse swing.

So the new rule stipulated that the fielding team will have to choose one of the two balls in operation after 34 overs. So, they would in theory be bowling with that one old ball for the last 16 overs, allowing the chance for the ball to lose its shine completely and get scrubbed up and be ready for reverse.

Instead, what the dew did was to soften that one old-ish ball so much that reverse swing was not on offer, but the absence of two balls meant this one ball got more and more wet.

But wasn’t the ball changed at least once in the second game during that final phase?

Yes, it was done in the second match at Raipur, and the effect was immediate to see. It had got so soaked up that the umpires replaced it with a dryer ball.  It was changed in the middle of the 43rd over, and Prasidh Krishna immediately started bowling yorkers, and also dismissed Tony Zorzi with one such delivery. Arshdeep Singh too took out Marco Jansen with a full-pacy delivery in the next over. But it didn’t take long for that replacement ball to also get soaking wet, and once again South Africans got away and cruised to a win.