Bit of a mess in World Cup final toss

Two coin tosses were necessary before the start of the World Cup final between India and Sri Lanka today when nobody including match referee Jeff Crowe appeared to hear Kumar Sangakkara's call the first time.

Two coin tosses were necessary before the start of the World Cup final between India and Sri Lanka on Saturday when nobody including match referee Jeff Crowe appeared to hear Kumar Sangakkara's call the first time.

HT Image

Sri Lanka captain Sangakkara won the second toss and predictably elected to bat first in a good toss to win for the 1996 champions.

Sri Lanka dropped spinners Ajantha Mendis and Rangana Herath and middle-order batsman Chamara Silva.

Paceman Nuwan Kulasekara came in for the injured all-rounder Angelo Mathews and Sri Lanka bolstered their middle-order batting with Thisara Perera and Chamara Kapugedera. Off-spinner Suraj Randiv, an injury replacement, was also selected.

Injured left-arm pace bowler Ashish Nehra was replaced by Shanthakumaran Sreesanth in the India team.

Teams:
India: Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Munaf Patel.

Sri Lanka: Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, Kumar Sangakkara (captain), Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Kapugedera, Thisara Perera, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Suraj Randiv, Muttiah Muralitharan.