In this article lets take a look at everything you need to know about what is dew factor and how does it affect the game of cricket and is dew factor good for batting or bowling side in detail.
This is the most comprehensive guide you can find online regarding dew factor so I would also recommend you to bookmark the article so that you can read the article in detail.
So without further ADO let’s dive right in.
What is dew factor in cricket and how does it form?
To put it simply in brief words,
Dew is the water vapour which is present in air converts into liquid when the temperature of ground & grass falls in night time and when the grass cools down, the surrounding air gets cool down as well and the water vapour turns from gas into liquid and gets accumulated on grass as moisture.
Because the temperature of the ground is lesser compared to the temperature of air around it and cold air have more weight compared to hot air so all the water vapour present in the air converts into liquid and gets accumulated on the ground which is called as dew.
Note: it is very important to know that land gets heated faster compared to air because land absorbs more solar radiation than water during the daytime and the opposite is that land also cools down more faster compared to air and water which create temperature difference between air and ground so the dew occurs.
Humidity plays a big part in the forming dew as the air condenses when the temperatures fall during the evening. Even in places where dry heat soars during the day followed by cool evenings, dew is almost an inevitability.
Just think of it as opposite of evaporation, evaporation means water converts from liquid to gas due to high temperature in day time due to presence of sun light and condensation is when sun is not present which is in night time obviously the temperature of the atmosphere and the land falls at night and all the water vapour present in the air gets cool down and turns into liquid which is basically water and this is called dew.
This is important for cricket match because many Limited overs matches like ODI and T20 are played in night time for example T20 matches start at 6:30 p.m. and eventually end the match at 11:30 pm at night and
ODI matches start at 1:30 or 2 pm and end at evening 9 or 10 pm and the dew factor will affect in the second innings of the cricket match and there are a few test matches which are played day night but limited overs matches are mostly affected by dew.
Let’s take a look at how this dew factor will affect any cricket match and turn the game upside down.
How to reduce and overcome the dew factor in cricket?
- The first way to reduce the dew factor is by cutting the grass on the ground because more length and height of grass can lead to more accumulation of moisture which can increase the Dew factor
- The second way to reduce dew factor is by not watering the cricket ground for a couple of days before the match begins normally cricket grounds are watered in order to avoid grass getting dried out but not sprinkling water before a couple of days when match begins, all the dew that accumulates on the grass will get absorbed by the grass quickly because the grass would become dry
- In the middle of cricket match like any drinks break & end of innings, big ropes which get attached with machines are used as shown in the image earlier to soakup all the dew in the rope
- There are a variety of non-toxic sprays available in the marketplace which can decrease the effect of dew. Spraying them uniformly all over the field will help in soaking all the dew from the pitch.
- The other way to overcome dew factor is super-soppers. It is a powerful weapon that soaks all the moisture from the pitch in a super-fast manner.
these are some popular methods we can use to remove and overcome dew factor in cricket match to some extent to make the match more fair to both the teams.
Is dew good for batting or bowling
After learning all the effects of dew factor in a cricket match if you are still confused whether dew factor is good for batting or bowling then in brief words,
Dew factor gives batsman advantage because bowlers cannot hold and grip the ball and fast bowlers cannot Ball accurate line & length, ball skids on the bat and it becomes easy to time shots as a batsman, ball won’t swing or seam much due to dew & you can see a lot of miss fields & drop catches because ball slips away from the hand due to less friction.
So in every way possible Dew factor will only benefit batting side but of course as I have already mentioned a dear the batting team and the batsman will have to put more energy Behind every shot the play to get the boundary Because the ball will be more heavier as it will soak more water but apart from that Dew factor will only help batsmen and it can turn the game result upside-down.
with that said let’s conclude the article.
Conclusion
I hope this clears all your doubts regarding Dew factor in cricket in detail
Do comment down what are your thoughts about the factors and how we can reduce it to make cricket more fair between the teams.
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