"One in a million" - India coach quips about losing 20 tosses ahead of 3rd IND vs SA 2025 ODI 

Team India's assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate has admitted that the dew factor is playing a significant role in the ongoing ODI series against South Africa. He also hoped for some good luck with the coin in the final match of the series, which would end the team's shocking streak of losing 20 consecutive tosses in ODIs.

The three-match one-day series between India and South Africa is tied at 1-1, with the final game to be played in Visakhapatnam on Saturday, December 6. The Proteas have won the toss on both occasions and have invited the Men in Blue to bat. India beat South Africa by 17 runs in the first match in Ranchi, but went down by four wickets in the second game in Raipur.

While India's bowling was poor in the second ODI, dew clearly made life very difficult for the hosts in the field. Speaking at a press conference ahead of the third and final one-dayer, Ten Doeschate shared his thoughts on the dew factor. The former Netherlands star commented:

"The dew factor is, we're actually trying to put a number on it and it varies between 10 and 20% [in terms of] what a big difference it makes [to the result].

On India's horrendous luck with the toss, he added:

"I think we're one in a million statistically at the moment so if we can go two million tomorrow, that'll be pretty impressive. But again, it's a bit of a joke, but the responsibility or the preparation is to beat whatever is put in front of us and eventually we're going to win a toss anyway."

The last time Team India won a toss in an ODI match was in the semifinal of 2023 World Cup against New Zealand.

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"You always want more runs" - Ryan ten Doeschate on conversations around dew in the Indian camp

Batting first in Ranchi, India scored 349-8 in 50 overs, which was enough to secure a close win for them. In Raipur, they put up a total of 358-5, but the Proteas chased down the score in 49.2 overs. Ten Doeschate asserted that India were satisfied with the totals they put up, but admitted that the conversation have been around scoring extra keeping the dew factor in mind. He commented:

"At the start of the first game, we thought 320 sort of par, and then we put a premium at 350 and we thought that the game in Raipur was the same. We thought 360, even given the dew coming, it was a good effort to get that score.

"You always want more runs and again the conversations have been around how can we maximize. What we said about guys starting in slightly later on, what are the better options, we just had a good chat around that," ten Doeschate added.

Chasing a target of 359 in Raipur, South Africa got home courtesy of Aiden Markram (110 off 98), Matthew Breetzke (68 off 64), Dewald Brevis (54 off 34) and handy contributions from Temba Bavuma (46) and Corbin Bosch (29*).