1. A method of pipeline operation of a processor, comprising: Initiating, by the processor, a fetch of a group of two operands specified in an instruction, wherein one operand is to be conditionally selected from the group of two operands based on an operand conditional selection criterion in the instruction that specifies a condition code, and the not selected one of the two operands is in flight in the pipeline and not available at the time the fetch is initiated; determining, by the processor, a value of the condition code affected by execution of a previous function instruction in an execution pipeline stage, that meets the operand conditional selection criterion, and in response selects the one operand from the group of two operands; executing, by the processor, the instruction once the one selected operand has been received; and terminating, by the processor, the fetch in effect for the operand from the group that is not selected before the non-selected operand becomes available.