Video replays suggest blunder at toss during India-Sri Lanka T20I
As India emerged victorious in the one-off T20I against Sri Lanka in the match held in Colombo, they extended their winning run to nine straight matches against the hapless hosts.
However, things could have gone very differently if not for the blunder made at the very beginning of the match during the toss.
Video replays suggest that Murali Kartik, who was the presenter at the moment was the man who made the mistake of awarding India the toss despite Sri Lanka winning it.
Kartik was present at the crease along with the two captains - Virat Kohli and Upul Tharanga. Along with them was the match referee Andy Pycroft and toss representative Gautam.
As has been the norm throughout the series, Kohli made the call and called heads. As the match referee went to gather the coin, it was clear that he confirmed it was tails and even pointed towards the Sri Lankan skipper. However, the video also suggests that he said "India" after claiming that it was tails.
In this moment of confusion, Kartik immediately went on to say that it was heads and that Kohli had won the toss. As he did so, Pycroft was seen spreading his arms out to suggest that Kartik had made the wrong decision.
However, he was not stopped and the decision remained in India's favour.
Interestingly enough, both the captains did not notice what had happened and went on with the toss. Tharanga had revealed that he would have opted to chase as well if he had won the toss. Hence, the outcome of the match could have been different if the blunder at the toss did not occur.
Sri Lanka did end up performing well with the bat as they ended up with a highly respectable total of 170-7 in their 20 overs.
However, the total proved to be too less for the Indian batsmen who chased it down with ease with seven wickets in hand. Kohli was the man of the match for his 54 ball 82 which consisted of seven fours and one six. Manish Pandey too chipped in with an excellent half century
This is not the first time there has been confusion over the toss in and India-Sri Lanka fixture. During 2011 World Cup final between the two sides, the toss had to be held twice as the match referee Jeff Crowe did not hear Kumar Sangakarra's call the first time.
After it was held the second time, Sangakarra won the toss and opted to bat first. The rest, as they say, is history.