This has been a long debate on how a team playing on their home ground in the home country always perform better and have more chance of winning the game. This has a lot linked to the altered pitch conditions, confidence, turn factor, weather conditions and much more. Due to this factor ICC has also planned to includes fines to the home countries who alter a lot with the pitch condition to turn the match in their favour.
What does home advantage mean?
In all the team sports term home advantage also called home ground, home court, home filed or defender’s advantage is the benefit which the home team has over the visiting team. The benefits are often linked to some psychological factors as well as physical factors that affect the sport and mindset. The disadvantaged team suffer from the changed time zone, climate rigours travel, specific rules that may favour the home country directly or indirectly and the ground size.
There are several metrics which could be measured to look at the advantage but let’s focus on the variations and manipulations. A lot of cricket betting also depends on where the match has played and thus it has not only taken an important role in the game but now has been a part for people to know the decision as well. Let’s try to measure this advantage
Measuring Home Advantage
Eight of the last ten Ashes which have been played have been won by the host country. Looking at a bit wider side which includes all the tests since the 2000s. The series result has been 56% in favour of the home country and 30% losses. A single match has related 48% in favour of the home country and there have been 24% losses. The victory margin has been over 63 runs which means that the visitors have to make 63 more runs than a usual game to increase their chances of winning. Now all of this data points that the figures are quite big and the home advantage attached to it is also big enough.
A player with an average of37.6 at home drops away to 32 away from home and this certainly happens with almost all the players. This average is true for both bowlers and batsman each has a better performance at their home ground and the difference is noticeable. Some players also have their careers stalled just because they are given an opportunity at away from home tests in which it hard to perform better and their performance is affected.
Series Advantage
With a series, the home advantage gets bigger and bigger. The longer the series, more, matches are played which increase the average chances of teams winning the series.
Linkage to Pitch Design
One of the important factors with the home advantage is how the pitch is made. If we look at New Zealand the pitches are almost of how the pitches are made in India. An average Day 1 pitch in New Zealand has more grass than the average Australian backyard. Thus, the great fast bowlers Trent Boult and Tim Southee get help from this pitch in speed, bounce and swing. South Africa can also be added to the list of green pitches with Dale Steyn, Rabada on their side this is the pitch that will favour them. England’s pitch is less bouncy the South Africa but offer plenty of seam and swing. The wicket prepared in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh a much recently in UAE are all the same and are made under dry conditions. They stay low and dry offering assistance to the world-class spinners. Australian pitches tend to offer bounce and as they are playing on that ground this gives them a home advantage.
Weather Advantage
Now when the visitor travel to your country there sure is a difference in time zone apart from the difference in pitch. This time zone affects them psychologically and a lot of changes when they play. The sleep cycle may not adjust properly and thus the performance may not be their 100%. Also, the team may not be used to sweaty conditions or conditions which are too cold.
This is how a home team gets the advantage in a game and this is highly being used these days in series for one’s favour. Now that you are aware of the home advantage and how to use it for betting, you can bet on high-end bookmakers like 22Bet and Melbet to take the advantage.