Mumbai, April 3: Gautam Gambhir (97) and MS Dhoni (91*) set up a memorable six-wicket win against Sri Lanka in the ICC World Cup 2011 final played at the Wankhede Stadium here today. This is India’s second cricket World Cup victory, coming 28 years after they first won it in 1983.
Chasing Sri Lanka’s score of 274, India got off to a poor start. Virender Sehwag (0) was trapped LBW by Lasith Malinga off just the second ball of the innings while Sachin Tendulkar (18) got out after playing a cameo. India were 31 for two in 6.1 overs at that stage.
Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli then set about the task of resurrecting the Indian innings. The two put on 83 off 15.3 overs before Kohli (35) was dismissed off a superb return catch by Tillakaratne Dilshan. India were 114 for three at the fall of Kohli’s wicket.
MS Dhoni, who had endured a poor run of form earlier in the tournament, promoted himself ahead of Yuvraj Singh to come out to bat at No. 5. However Dhoni, today, played an inspired innings as he struck a 109-run partnership with Gautam Gambhir that took India to the cusp of victory. Gambhir, unfortunately, got out three runs short of what would have been a well deserved century.
With India needing just 52 runs to win at the fall of Gambhir’s wicket, Dhoni (91* off 79) and Yuvraj Singh (21* off 24) finished the game with a flurry of boundaries that took India home with six wickets and 10 deliveries to spare. The win, set up by a host of good performances right through the tournament, has widely been attributed to the hard work of departing coach Gary Kirsten and his excellent support staff.
Earlier, the day began with some confusion over the toss. When the toss was conducted the first time round, the captains appeared confused about who had called right. As a result, the toss was conducted a second time Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara emerged the winner and opted to bat first.
In the 2003 World Cup final, Zaheer Khan gave away 28 runs off his first three overs as the Australian openers took him apart. Today, though, Zaheer made amends with a neat first spell. He did not give away a single run in his first three overs while his 19th delivery gave India its first wicket, Virender Sehwag taking a sharp catch at first slip to dismiss Upul Tharanga (2). Zaheer Khan’s final over, however, yielded 18 crucial runs, propelling the visitors to a solid score of 274.
S Sreesanth, playing just his second game of the tournament, complemented Zaheer’s initially and the Indians kept the Sri Lankans down to just 31 runs for one wicket in their first 10 overs.
The Sri Lankans picked up the pace thereafter scoring 27 in the second Powerplay. But Harbhajan’s dismissal of Tillakaratne Dilshan (33) in the 17th over kept the Lankans in check.
Two productive partnerships followed for the visitors – 62 between Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene and 57 runs between Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera – that helped give their innings the required momentum.
Yuvraj got rid of Sangakkara (48) and Samaraweera (21) and with Chamara Kapugedera (1) falling to Zaheer Khan, India had the Lankans in a spot of bother at 182 for five in 39.5 overs.
However, Jayawardene guided Sri Lanka past that situation helping himself to a hundred in the process. His century came off just 84 deliveries with the middle-order batsman hardly playing a risky shot during his entire innings. Jayawardene’s effort also saw Sri Lanka score 91 runs off their last ten overs to propel them to a score of 274.
Jayawardene remained unbeaten on 103 while Nuwan Kulasekara (32 off 30 balls) and Thisara Perera (22* off 9 deliveries) played vital cameos for Sri Lanka.
Brief scores: India 277 for 4 in 48.2 overs(Gautam Gambhir 97, MS Dhoni 91*, Virat Kohli 35, Lasith Malinga 2/42)beat Sri Lanka 274 for six in 50.0 overs (Mahela Jayawardene 103*, Kumar Sangakkara 48, Yuvraj Singh 2/49, Zaheer Khan 2/60)
Man-of-the-match: MS Dhoni for his remarkable innings of 91* off just 79 deliveries
Man-of-the-tournament: Yuvraj Singh. Yuvraj won four man-of-the-match awards in the 2011 ICC World Cup, scored 362 runs and took 15 wickets.
