History made after 28 years at Wankhede Stadium: Dhoni, Yuvraj steer through Sri Lanka attacks
Mumbai: M.S. Dhoni (91 not out) and Gautam Gambhir (97) helped India beat Sri Lanka by six wickets to win the ICC World Cup 2011 at Wankhede stadium here on April 2. Dhoni joined legendary Kapil Dev to lift the coveted trophy for India. It’s India’s first World Cup championship in 28 years.
Dhoni played captain’s innings in the summit clash as he hit two sixes and eight fours in his 79-ball innings and raced to 50 in just 52 balls.
The skipper added a record 109-run partnership with Gambhir for the fourth wicket, which was highest for India in the World Cup final, to chase the challenging 275-run target.
Gambhir missed to score a hundred in the World Cup final as Lankan all-rounder Thisara Parera clean bowled him in the 42nd over.
After losing two quick wickets, Virat Kohli (35) added a valuable 83-run stand with Gambhir to resurrect the Indian innings.
Sri Lankan pacer Lasith Malinga dismissed Sachin Tendulkar (18) and Virender Sehwag (0) early to jolt the India run-chase. Tendulkar was going smoothly as he hit two fours in his 14-ball 18 innings before Malinga struck in the seventh over.
India started the run-chase on terrible note as they lost Virender Sehwag (0) on the second ball of the match as Malinga trapped dashing opener LBW in his opening over.
Earlier, Mahela Jayawardene slammed 14th one-day hundred, second of the mega-event, to help Sri Lanka post 274/6 against 1983 champions.
Jayawardene used all his experience to score unbeaten 88-ball 103 as he hit 13 fours and raced to his hundred in just 84 balls.
With this Jayawardene joined the elite group of batsmen, who scored a century in the World Cup finals — Clive Lloyd (‘75), Viv Richards (‘79), Arvinda de Silva (‘96), Ricky Ponting (‘03) and Adam Gilchrist (‘07).
Thisara Perera joined the party in their batting powerplay as he slammed a six and three fours in his 9-ball 22 blitzkrieg. Sri Lanka piled agony for India in the period as they scored 63 runs and lost only a wicket.
For India, Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh took two wickets apiece to halt Sri Lanka innings before Jayawardene started dominating the proceedings with Nuwan Kulasekara (32).
In between, Zaheer equalled Shahid Afridi as leading wicket-taker when Chamara Kapugedera became his 21st victim of the World Cup.
Man-of-the-match Dhoni (91 not out) and man-of-the-tournament Yuvraj Singh (21 not out) finished the job.
Victory gave India their second World Cup title to set alongside their victory over the West Indies at Lord’s in 1983 and saw them become the first team to win the trophy on home soil.
Defeat for Sri Lanka was their second in successive World Cup finals after losing to Australia in Barbados four years ago.
It also meant there was no fairytale finish for record-breaking off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, the sole survivor from Sri Lanka’s 1996 champion side, who had announced previously he would retire after this World Cup.
Earlier, Sri Lanka’s captain Kumar Sangakkara won the toss amid an unexpected drama and elected to bat against India.
Scoreboard
Sri Lanka:
U. Tharanga c Sehwag b Zaheer 2
T. Dilshan b Harbhajan 33
K. Sangakkara c Dhoni b Yuvraj 48
M. Jaywardene not out 103
T. Samaraweera lbw b Yuvraj 21
C. Kapugedera c Raina b Zaheer 1
N. Kulasekara run out (Dhoni) 32
T. Perera not out 22
Extras: (bl, lb3, w6, nb2) 12
Total: (6 wkts, 50 overs) 274
Did not bat: L Malinga, S Randiv, M Muralitharan
Fall of wickets: 1-17 (Tharanga), 2-60 (Dilshan), 3-122 (Sangakkara), 4-179 (Samaraweera), 5-182 (Kapugedera), 6-248 (Kulasekara)
Bowling: Zaheer 10-3-60-2 (1w); Sreesanth 8-0-52-0 (2nb); Patel 9-0-41-0 (1w); Harbhajan 10-0-50-1 (1w); Yuvraj 10-0-49-2; Tendulkar 2-0-12-0 (3w); Kohli 1-0-6-0
India:
Virender Sehwag lbw b Malinga 0
Sachin Tendulkar c Sangakkara b Malinga 18
Gautam Gambhir b Perera 97
Virat Kohli c & b Dilshan 35
M.S. Dhoni not out 91
Yuvraj Singh not out 21
Extras: (B-1, LB-6, W-8) 15
Total: (For 4 wkts in 48.2 overs) 277
Did not bat: Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Munaf Patel.
Fall of wickets: 1/0 2/31 3/114 4/223
Bowling: Malinga 9-0-42-2, Kulasekara 8.2-0-64-0, Perera 9-0-55-1, Randiv 9-0-43-0, Dilshan 5-0-27-1, Muralitharan 8-0-39-0.
Umpires: Simon Taufel (AUS) and Aleem Dar (PAK)
TV umpire: Ian Gould (ENG).
Match referee: Jeff Crowe (NZL)
