India beat Sri Lanka to win ICC World Cup 2011
MUMBAI: An inspired India
on Saturday night regained the coveted World Cup after 28 years as they
suppressed Sri Lanka with a six-wicket victory in a nerve-wrecking final
to script a glorious new chapter in their cricketing history.
In Pics: India's road to WC final
In Pics: Sri Lanka's road to WC final
Chasing 275 for a historic win, the Indians held their nerves as they
rode on Gautam Gambhir's 97 and Mahendra Singh Dhoni's unbeaten 91 to
overhaul the target with 10 balls to spare and send the cricket-crazy
nation into a frenzy.
The vociferous, jam-packed crowd at the
Wankhede stadium erupted in wild celebrations as Dhoni hit the winning
six runs to give India their biggest cricketing moment and crown
themselves the ODI world champions, in addition to being the number one
Test team.
The World Cup title triumph, coming as it did after
more than two decades, was doubly special for Sachin Tendulkar since it
was the only silverware missing from his collection.
It was also a fitting farewell to coach Gary Kirsten, for whom it was the last day in office as the Indian coach.
It was a momentous Saturday night marked by high emotion and poignant
scenes as India, for long the game's financial power, stamped their
supremacy on the field as well, eight years after Sourav Ganguly's team
had made an abortive attempt to scale the pinnacle.
The
players, many of them with tears in their eyes, rushed to the ground to
hug each other as Dhoni finished it off in style by hitting a six, as
fire crackers lit up the evening sky to mark the moment.
The
highlight of the Lankan innings was Mahela Jayawardene's rollicking 103
as Sri Lanka capitalised on the batting powerplay to post a decent 274
for six.
Electing to bat after winning the toss, Jayawardene
used his vast experience to good effect and anchored the Lankan innings
together.
The islanders, desperate to regain the coveted cup
after nearly 15 years, lost wickets at regular intervals against the
Indians, who were spurred on by a vociferous jam-packed crowd.
The Indian bowlers were disciplined in the first half of the innings
but conceded as many as 63 runs in the batting powerplay to undo all the
good work.
Apart from Jayawardene's 88-ball knock, captain
Kumar Sangakkara (48) Tillakaratne Dilshan (33) and Nuwan Kulasekara
(32) were the other notable performers.
The Indian innings
began on a disastrous note as the destructive Virender Sehwag was
dismissed in the very second ball of the innings with paceman Lasith
Malinga scalping the prized wicket.
Sehwag was hit on the pads
by an incoming delivery by Malinga as he went for a flick. Umpire Aleem
Dar ruled him out before he asked for review but television replays
showed that the ball would have hit the stumps.
Tendulkar,
playing in what probably is his last World Cup game, entertained his
home crowd with a couple of delightful boundaries while Gambhir also
looked for runs at the other end.
The Indians suffered a huge
jolt went Malinga struck again by dismissing the champion batsman as he
snicked an away-going delivery and captain Sangakkara latched on to a
low catch. A hushed silence descended on the Wankhede stadium as he
started his walk back to the pavilion.
Gambhir drove
Kulasekara for a boundary in the extra cover region to notch up 4000 ODI
runs while Virat Kohli also pulled the bowler to the boundary in the
same over.
Gambhir was lucky to get a reprieve in spinner Suraj Randiv's first over when Kulasekara dropped him at the long off region.
The third-wicket pair of Gambhir and Kohli put on 83 runs before
Dilshan broke the partnership by taking a brilliant acrobatic return
catch.
The out-of-form Dhoni came ahead of Yuvraj to keep the
left-right combination going and was immediately given two 'lives' by
the Lankans -- first Sangakkara messing up a stumping chance off
Muralitharan and then Dilshan dropping a return catch as he collided
with non-striker Gambhir.
Dhoni, however, made the most of the Sri Lankan lapses to rediscover his form which had deserted him in the mega event.
Dhoni and Gambhir scored at a brisk pace to keep India in the hunt.
The pair stitched 109 runs for the fourth wicket before Gambhir paid
the price for a horrendous stroke, just three runs short of what would
have been a well-deserved century.
Gambhir made room to cut the ball but missed it completely to see his stumps dislodged.
Earlier, both the Indian new ball bowlers bowled a tidy line and length
and did not allow the Sri Lankan openers to get off to a flying start
while the fielding was also sharp.
Pace spearhead Zaheer's
first three overs were maidens and that put some pressure on the two
Lankan openers who were not being able to capitalise on the powerplay
overs.
Dilshan broke the stranglehold by hitting the first
boundary of the innings in the 5th over by pulling Sreesanth to the
square leg fence.
In the same over, he produced a delightful cut to the point for his second boundary.
Tharanga looked completely out of sorts at the other end as he found it
difficult to find the gaps as Zaheer bowled a searching length right
through his opening spell.
Zaheer drew first blood in his
fourth over by evicting Tharanga with an outgoing delivery and Virender
Sehwag holding on to diving catch at first slip much to the delight of a
capacity crowd at the stadium. Tharanga scored just two runs off 20
balls.
The Lankans could manage just 31 runs in the first ten
overs, their lowest in the tournament. That was largely because of
Zaheer's excellent first spell of 5-3-6-1.
Dilshan and
Sangakkara put on 43 runs for the second wicket before Harbhajan Singh
struck for his team by getting rid of Dilshan (33), who scored 500 runs
in the tournament.
Dilshan went for a sweep but the ball hit
his gloves and lobbed onto his stumps to trigger off wild celebrations
in the galleries.
Sangakkara and Jayawardene then took upon
themselves the task of rebuilding the innings and the duo scored at a
decent pace to steer the team to a comfortable position.
Yuvraj Singh, who had a dream tournament with both the bat and the ball,
was introduced into the attack in the 22nd over but the two experienced
batsmen were not really troubled by his left arm spin.
It was
Yuvraj who finally broke the 62-run third wicket partnership which was
assuming dangerous proportions by dismissing Sangakkara who tried to cut
a wide ball outside the off stump but only succeeded in edging the ball
to Dhoni behind the stump. His knock of 48 came off 67 balls and
contained five boundaries.
It was left to the well-settled
Jayawardene to hold the innings together and he found an able ally in
Thilan Samaraweera to take the Sri Lankan total close to the 180 mark.
Yuvraj was again instrumental in breaking the fourth- wicket
partnership by accounting for Samaraweera. Umpire Simon Taufel turned
down the leg before appeal but the Indians went for the referral and
television replays showed that the ball would have hit the stumps.
New batsman Chamara Kapugedera did not survive long as he offered a
simple catch to Suresh Raina at extra cover off a slower delivery from
Zaheer, leaving the visitors in a spot of bother at 182 for five.
Jayawardene and Nuwan Kulasekara then teamed up ensure that Sri Lanka
had a competitive total on the board as they went about accumulating
runs in the batting powerplay, which was taken in the last five overs.
India:
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin
Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh,
Zaheer Khan, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Munaf Patel.
Sri Lanka:
Kumar Sangakkara (capt), Mahela Jayawardene, Upul Tharanga,
Tillakaratne Dilshan, Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Kapugedera, Suraj
Randiv, Thisara Perera, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Muttiah
Muralitharan.
