Manchester victory formula: Bat first or get tossed out

Of the remaining 41, teams batting first won 27 times. There were just 14 successful chases. On 19 occasions did teams batting first make in excess of 300 runs. Only once did that prove inadequate. Batting first has been the key to success. Playing in the World Cup and coming under scoreboard pressure, pitches slowing down in the second half, teams coming up with better plans to defend --- the factors are several. When India take on New Zealand in Tuesday's semifinal, both teams will remember that this bat-first-to-win formula has worked best at Old Trafford. Not that this venue has produced low totals. Quite the opposite actually, considering that the average first-innings score here has been 323.4. The point to note is, in all five matches at this ground, teams batting first have had the last laugh. Virat Kohli's team knows that well, having been part of two of those. Such a plan has worked for India irrespective of where they have played. They won all five times batting first, lost one and won two while chasing. Considering these kinds of statistics, it appears that the team winning the toss won't hesitate to bat, unless the weather changes drastically. Asked about this on Monday, Kohli played down the toss factor. "It's an uncontrollable. We have to be prepared for both. We believe in ourselves as a side which can overcome any kind of situation." But the India captain did shed some light on the chase factor. He knows a thing or two about it, having been the protagonist in many of those, mostly to a winning cause. "It comes down to handling pressure. You make two bad decisions chasing and the game goes away from you. Having been part of so many chases, I understand that the pressure can be very high if you don't go with the pace of the game. Then, in a tournament of this magnitude, you can end up making a couple of mistakes. I'd say it's been more about pressure than the pitches (in this World Cup)." That conditions have changed during the course of the competition has also played a part. It has been warmer and drier the last few weeks and this has brought the spinners into the picture in the second half of a game. After losing against England batting second, Rohit Sharma said the pitch had slowed down when India batted. Bangladesh coach Steve Rhodes had felt the same after his team fell short of India's 314. "What we didn't expect coming into the tournament was the large variety of conditions that we faced. That definitely made batting with any rhythm a real challenge for everybody. So being able to adapt with the bat, while batting first or chasing, is certainly the most important thing. "A lot of surfaces in the round robin stage were producing 230-240, which became competitive because of the nature of the tracks," said New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson. Heading into a World Cup semifinal, teams to have this far are likely to believe that they can win irrespective of conditions. But given the facts and figures related to batting first in this competition and at Old Trafford, one can expect the captain winning the toss making only one call. Unless, of course, conditions overhead change. Numbers 27 batting first wins 14 batting second wins 5 In Manchester in all matches so far, teams batting first have won 19 Totals of 300 or more 1 Just once have a team won chasing 300 or more DailyhuntDisclaimer: This story is auto-aggregated by a computer program and has not been created or edited by Dailyhunt. Publisher: The New Indian Expresshttps://vimeo.com/user99811918/about