Former Sri Lankan captain Sangakkara reveals the confusion that takes place during the 2011 World cup finals. He also recalled the moment when the then Indian skipper MS Dhoni insist to flip the coin once again.
Fliped the coin for the second time
Sangakkara reveled this never-heard-before info during the latest episode of Instagram series ‘Reminisce with Ash’ hosted by Ravichandran Ashwin when the off-spinner asked the former keeper-batsman about the controversial toss when the coin flip was done twice amid the cacophony of the Wankhede and eventually Sangakkara opted to bat.
“The was crowd was huge. 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,” Kumar said.
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“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.”
“I am not sure whether it was luck that I won. I believe probably India might have batted if I had lost,” he added.
The loss meant Sri Lanka’s wait for a world title continued as the 1996 world champions failed in the final hurdle again.
“Whether we win or lose, we have this equilibrium on how to take a win or loss. The smile hides a huge amount of sadness, of disappointment, of thinking of 20 million people back in Sri Lanka who had been waiting for this for so long, since 1996.”
“We had an opportunity in 2011, opportunity in 2007, then T20 opportunities in 2009 and 2012,” Sangakkara said.
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The former skipper also expressed his thoughts on how them missing out on having Angelo Mathews in the team for the 2011 World Cup hurt them the most and said: “In that WC final, that’s the biggest thing I look back and think…”
“You can talk about drop catches and all of that happens. But the composition of the side and the fact that we were forced to make the change was to me the turning point.”
