A coin toss that took place during an Indian Premiere League match last week at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, has created some confusion, according to a report on Sportskeeda.com.
The match, between Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab, began with the customary toss between KKR captain Gautam Gambhir and Kings skipper Murali Vijay. Commentator Ravi Shastri had the mic in his hands, and they were also joined by the match referee Amit Sharma and the toss representative. Vijay ended up winning the toss and sent KKR in to bat, explaining that he wanted to put them under pressure because of their reputations as good chasers.
His bet didn't pay off, though — the Kolkata Knight Riders scraped through by restricting Punjab to 157/9 after posting a target of 164 on the board.
However, it later transpired that there had been some confusion during the toss. A Twitter user shared a video clip, in which it appears that Vijay called 'heads' while the coin was up in the air, which Shastri reiterated on the mic to viewers worldwide. However, when the coin landed, match referee Sharma called it as 'tails', and then pointed towards Vijay as the winner.
Here's the clip. Murali Vijay calls it wrong, still wins the toss. Shady characters of a filthy league. #TossFixingpic.twitter.com/YKgWiXXniS
— Malay Desai (@MalayD) May 9, 2016
Some have called this incident a controversy, saying it is further proof that cricket matches in various formats are 'fixed'.
Well well well, here is a new controversy. In #KKRvKXIP match Gambhir won the toss but Ravi Shastri went to Vijay for his decision. #KKRvGL
— Sandipan Banerjee (@im_sandipan) May 8, 2016
Sportskeeda.com noted that it was possible that "either Shastri or the match referee were in error in stating something during the toss, thus causing the confusion". The commentator could also simply have misheard Vijay's call over the din created by the crowd at Eden Gardens and simply realised his error when the referee pointed out.
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