The aggressive ‘stand and deliver’ shot of MS Dhoni in the 2011 World Cup final against Sri Lanka which went for a six over long-on will always be remembered and cherished by the Indian fans. And why not, it won the World Cup trophy for the hosts after 28 years.
Apart from that magnificent scene, there was another talked-about moment which took place at the coin toss. During the toss process, some sort of confusion happened between the two captains – Dhoni (India) and Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka) – because of the noise in the crowd.
The former Lankan captain recalled the incident while speaking in an Instagram Live chat with Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on his latest episode of ‘Reminiscence with Ash’. Sangakkara revealed what exactly happened during the coin toss at Wankhede Stadium in the final.
Sanga said that due to such roar from the crowd, the confusion took place.
“The crowd was massive. It never happens in Sri Lanka. Once I had this at Eden Gardens when I could not talk to the first slip and then of course at the Wankhede. I remember calling on the toss then Mahi wasn’t sure and said “Did you call tail? and I said no I called head,” said Sangakkara.
“The match referee actually said I won the toss, Mahi said he did not. There was a little bit of confusion there, and Mahi said let’s have another toss of the coin and heads went up again,” he added.
The left-handed batter did win the toss eventually and elected to bat first, though he opined that if India had won the toss, they might have also batted first.
“I am not sure whether it was luck that I won. I believe probably India might have batted if I had lost,” Sanga added further.
