In a bizarre instance during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 match between the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Royal Challengers Bangalore contest at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Thursday, match referee Shakti Singh heard the wrong call from the captain at the toss before the start of the play.
While Bangalore captain Faf du Plessis had apparently called "Heads", as clarified by presenter Sanjay Manjrekar later, match referee actually thought he had called Tails and pointed at Nitish Rana suggesting Kolkata had won the toss. However, after Manjrekar's clarification, the toss was awarded to the visiting team who decided to bowl first.
Du Plessis later suggested that it could be because of his accent that the umpire failed to understand his call while Manjrekar suggested it could be because of the loud noise at the stadium.
The video of the incident has gone viral on social media:
Since Manjrekar had head the call clearly, there was no need for the coin to go up again. In perhaps the most famous of such a case of misunderstanding, the toss had to be redone. This was the ICC 2011 ODI World Cup final between India and Sri Lanka at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai where MS Dhoni had to toss the coin for the second time and Sri Lanka ended up winning the toss on the second occasion and opting to bat first.
Coming back to the IPL game between KKR and RCB, Bangalore were forced to bring in David Willey in this match in place of an injured Reece Topley. However, he has been impressive so far in the match and bowled a double-wicket maiden, removing Venkatesh Iyer and Mandeep Singh to ensure that Bangalore remain on top in the powerplay.