In the world of cricket, a coin is tossed to determine which team bats first. This is known as the toss.

The captain who wins the toss must choose whether to bat or field. The decision is of great tactical importance, and the captain will have considered many variables before arriving at his decision.

Nevertheless, the fact is the coin toss will select the weaker team just as frequently as the stronger one – it is a randomized trial par excellence, of the sort conducted at great expense in medicine. Thus, if the toss itself has no effect, one would expect the winner of the toss to win the match 50% of the time.

In general, winning the toss provides a small, but significant improvement to a team's chances of winning.