The pitch at the Gabba had a green top, which was acknowledged as being greener than the Gabba ever was. There was heavy cloud cover all day too. These conditions were accepted as being the Indian bowlers' only chance to quell the Australian bowlers as their bowling relied more on swing rather than pure pace. Sourav Ganguly, the Indian Captain won the toss and chose to field, but Zaheer Khan, India's opening bowler bowled a wayward first spell and then he and Ashish Nehra bowled consistently on a full-length basis, which resulted in the accumulation of runs for the Australian openers, Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer. While Hayden played aggressively, Langer played stylishly, in an almost "apologetic" manner.