IPL 2023: How toss, home-and-away format affected results of all 10 teams in league stage

The IPL 2023 season witnessed the return of the home-and-away format after three seasons. With the league’s return to its original format, teams have faced the challenge of adapting to different playing conditions while travelling around the country.

The toss has always been an integral factor in results in the IPL. However, how crucial was the coin flip throughout this IPL 2023 season? 

While some captains had luck on their side, others did not. Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain Sanju Samson was the most fortunate as he won 10 tosses in 14 games. On the contrary, the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captains, KL Rahul and Krunal Pandya, registered only three toss wins in the league stage of the tournament. 

The toss factor, coupled with the return of the home-and-away format has helped certain teams gain leverage over the others. Evidently, the teams which have maximised their home games – Gujarat Titans (GT), Chennai Super Kings (CSK), LSG and Mumbai Indians (MI) – have made it to the Playoffs. 

Here is a breakdown of how the teams have fared with the toss and the home-and-away format in the 2023 IPL season: 

Gujarat Titans:

GT has made it to the playoffs as table-topper for the second consecutive season. One of the major reasons for its success in the league stage was its home-win record. The Titans maximised their home advantage by securing four wins at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Along with CSK and MI, GT have managed the most wins at home in this year’s tournament. Its away record is also the joint-best, tied with the Punjab Kings (PBKS) on six wins. 

The team also won more matches (10) than tosses this season (8). In the away games, the reigning champion won 75 per cent of the games when it has won the toss and 66.67% of games where the flip of the coin didn’t go its way.

Chennai Super Kings

CSK continued its record of making it to the Playoffs the most number of times after finishing second on the league table, with a total of 17 points. The ‘Men in Yellow’ had four wins at the Chepauk and an equal number away.

CSK succeeded in winning the toss a total of nine times, mostly at Chepauk (55.55 per cent). The four-time champion had a better winning record in matches where it lost the toss (60 per cent). 

Lucknow Super Giants

Making it to the Playoffs in back-to-back seasons, LSG fared much better at games away from the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow, winning five from seven. LSG secured just seven points from matches played at home – three wins and a no-result. 

LSG also did not get the rub of the green when it came to the coin toss at home. However, despite the 10 lost tosses, it managed to conjure up seven victories.

Mumbai Indians:

MI joined hands with its arch-rival CSK when it came to the home-away record in this year’s IPL. Though it was a slow start to the season, the five-time champion registered four wins at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai and four wins in its away games. Its last do-or-die game against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) was also played at fortress Wankhede. With the home advantage, the team gained the crucial two points on the day and made it to the Playoffs. 

The coin flip did create an impact for Rohit Sharma’s men. Out of the eight games where the team won the toss, MI won a total of five matches (62.5 per cent). Mumbai also managed three wins from the six matches where it lost the toss..

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Till its final game, RCB was well in the race for the Playoffs but missed out on a top 4 spot after a loss to GT. Out of the seven wins the team managed this season, three came on its home ground, the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, while the remaining four came from matches played away.  

Its toss-win record is more or less similar to that of the Knight Riders. Out of the six toss-losing games, Faf du Plessis and his men managed to win three of them. RCB also managed to win half of the games where it had won the toss (four out of eight).

Rajasthan Royals

RR showed great potential early in the tournament but could win only half its matches this season. Playing in two home stadiums at Guwahati and Jaipur, the team could win only one at each venue. Five of their seven wins came from away games which points to the fact that RR did not find it difficult to adapt to different playing conditions. 

In this IPL season, RR was the toss champion, winning 10 from 14. However, this fortune didn’t favour the team at either home ground where it won only one out of five matches where it won the toss. RR had a perfect record when it came to wins after losing the toss.

Kolkata Knight Riders

KKR had a fluctuating campaign this year. With only six wins from 14 games, KKR was restricted to a seventh-place finish. It would be fair to say that the two-time champion was able to perform better away from home. Four of its six wins were from stadiums away from Kolkata.  

Its toss record was quite similar to its performance in the tournament. Out of the five tosses it won, the Knight Riders managed to convert only one into a victory. Similar to RR, KKR has a better record of winning the games after losing the toss; it has done so five out of nine times.

Punjab Kings

PBKS managed to have a decent show in this year’s IPL. PBKS seemed to find it difficult to play at either of its home grounds, Mohali and Dharamshala. The only home win came at the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) Stadium, Mohali, where it played five games. Away games were far better for the team as it won six out of seven games. 

Though the toss favoured Shikar Dhawan five times, his team succeeded in winning the match only twice. In spite of losing five tosses in away games, PBKS converted four of them to wins.

Delhi Capitals

IPL 2023 clearly did not go the Delhi Capitals (DC) way. It was only in its sixth game that the team could register its maiden win. Ten points from the next eight games was not enough for the team to climb to the Playoff spots. They had a fairly similar record home and away, winning two games at the Arun Jaitley Sadium and three away.

Though the team won the coin flip fairly often (seven times), wins came in only two of these games, one each home and away. Out of the seven games where the team lost the toss, two wins came their way. 

Sunrisers Hyderabad

SRH couldn’t turn the tables around this season. It found itself at the bottom of the table as it could win only four games (8 points). The 2016 title-winner was able to adapt better to conditions away from the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad as it could win only one game at home.  

Similar to ninth-placed DC, the team managed to win only two of seven toss-winning matches. SRH had a better record playing away, winning 75 per cent of its games despite losing the toss in most of them.