Basic fact emerges in day/night cricket in New Zealand

As New Zealand look to improve their record in one-day cricket they might ponder the risk to their chances of improving their record when playing home day/night matches in future.

Whereas traditional day matches show close to a 50:50 chance of winning whether batting first or chasing, there is a significant lurch towards winning by batting second in day/night games.

A total of 131 daytime one-day internationals (ODIs) have been played in New Zealand and the percentage of victories to the team batting first is 48.8% across all venues.

A breakdown of individual grounds shows teams' winning percentage when batting first: Auckland 47.4%, Christchurch 57.7%, Dunedin 46.7%, Hamilton 45.5%, Napier 40% and Wellington (Basin Reserve) 54.5%.

However, when the attention falls to day-nighters, which have far more appeal, especially at the height of summer from an entertainment perspective, the figures change dramatically.

Auckland drops to 28.6% chance of victory when batting first. The others are: Christchurch 40%, Dunedin 25%, Napier 35%, Taupo 33.3% and Wellington's Westpac Stadium 40%.

There have been a total of 42 day/night ODIs in New Zealand since the first match was played at Napier on February 3, 1996. The winning percentage overall for the team batting first is 33.8%.

Compounding the significance of these figures even more, is that of the last 15 ODIs under lights in New Zealand, 11 have been won by the chasing team, including all five day-night matches in the New Zealand-India series last summer.

The weather is clearly a factor because the later in the summer day/night games are played the more effect there is from dew settling on the ground, which wets the ball making it harder for bowlers to control.

There is also the problem, as occurred during the Indian series, of bad weather meaning pitches are too juicy, resulting in teams using them first being rolled for low scores, and before their overs are completed. This gives the team batting second a slightly drier pitch and more time in which to pace their run.

With New Zealand looking to improve its one-day win ratio, the game's administrators clearly have to look at the worth of day/night fixtures from the point of view of the income they bring as opposed to the chance for success should the home captain not manage to have his best luck in the tossing of the coin.

The statistics around the world show that Sri Lanka is the best place to score runs when chasing, although only fractionally ahead of Bangladesh and India while Pakistan is even worse than New Zealand.

The full list of winning percentages for team's chasing in day/night ODIs around the world is:

Sri Lanka 62.5%, Bangladesh 62.2%, India 61.9%, England 60%, UAE 57.6%, Australia 55.7%, South Africa 53.7%, New Zealand 33.8%, Pakistan 26.7%.