India vs Sri Lanka: Was there a goof-up during the toss in the one-off T20I in Colombo?

India’s successful tour of Sri Lanka ended on Wednesday with the visitors winning the one-off T20 match by seven wickets. Virat Kohli’s sublime 82-run knock in the chase was the highlight of the day. However, after the match, a video of toss has emerged which has become a major talking point. The video shows that during the toss, there seemed to be a misunderstanding between the match referee Andy Pycroft and presenter Murali Kartik. Sri Lanka’s captain Upul Tharanga tossed the coin and Kohli called it “heads”. As Pycroft checked the coin, it seemed he had said “tails, India”, pointing towards Tharanga. As Pycroft said India, Kartik might have assumed it’s a heads and proceeded to have a talk with Kohli straightaway while the match referee looked confused and befuddled.

Kohli decided to field first as Sri Lanka scored 170/7 in 20 overs and India chased down the target in 19.2 overs losing just three wickets in the process. This is not the first time a toss-related controversy has emerged. In the 2016 edition of the Indian Premium League, a similar incident took place between Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab. When Gautam Gambhir spun the coin, Murali Vijay, the captain of Kings XI Punjab called “heads” however match referee Amit Sharma declared it was tails and Vijay had won the toss. There was some sort of confusion before presenter Ravi Shastri went ahead and started a conversation with Vijay while Gambhir, who had in fact won the toss call, waited for his chance.

India and Sri Lanka were also involved in an another toss-related confusion in the 2011 World Cup final. The coin was tossed twice because match referee Jeff Crowe couldn’t hear the call of Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara.