Mystery behind bizarre toss during India-Lanka final cleared

The mystery behind the bizarre toss that was won by Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara in his second attempt before the start of the World Cup final has been cleared.

Match referee Jeff Crowe couldn't hear Sangakkara's initial call due to crowds noise, and Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was already on his way to speak to Ravi Shastri after winning the toss after the first call.

The noise from a capacity 35,000-plus crowd greeted the flip of the coin by Dhoni again for the second time, but the Indian captain was not lucky this time.

The controversy of the bizarre first toss was cleared up on Sunday, with Crowe confirming that neither he, Dhoni nor Ravi Shastri, covering the event for ESPN, heard Sangakkara's call the first time.

When the coin fell, a clueless Shastri assumed Dhoni had heard the Sri Lanka skipper and asked him what had happened.

Dhoni, equally unsure, took that to mean he had won and said: "We'll bat."

Sangakkara insisted he had called right but, for good measure, called right when it was performed again.