Skipper Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir play stellar roles; Sachin Tendulkar achieves his dream; Yuvraj Singh Wins Man of the Tournament award .
Skipper Mahender Singh Dhoni’s six in the 49th over of the World Cup final against Sri Lanka at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai on April 2 took the country to its dream of lifting the World Cup and ending its 28 years long wait. Replying to Sri Lanka’s 275, India began miserably and lost Virender Sehwag in the second ball of Lasith Malinga. Sehwag, who had given India a fabulous start in the earlier innings, was caught lbw and the referral too could not bail him out.
Sachin Tendulkar (18) who had dreamt of scoring a ton in the World Cup tournament in front of his home crowd was cut short after he was caught behind by Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara while steering Malinga through the off-side. At that time, India were tottering at 31 for two and it looked that India’s chances of winning the World Cup looked very slim.
Then walked in Virat Kohli (35) and in the company of Gautam Gambhir steadied the Indian innings. With both of them hailing from the same state, things were easy as they had good understanding in running between the wickets. Both of them attacked the Lankan bowling and built a partnership of 83 runs before Kohli was caught and bowled by Dilshan. At this stage, the Indian skipper promoted himself and joined Gambhir at the crease. They both played stellar roles to take India to safety. Gautam was unlucky not to score a century and was clean bowled at 97 by Perera. His 97 consisted of nine fours. By then, he had put on a 109-run partnership with his skipper to snatch the lead from Lanka.
Yuvraj Singh on earlier occasions who had played a stellar role in scripting wins in the earlier part of the tournament joined Dhoni at the crease and achieved the dreams of millions of Indians of lifting the World Cup in its tenth edition. India had won the cup last in 1983 under the leadership of India’s all rounder Kapil Dev. India created history by being the first host country to lift the World Cup and also winning by chasing a high score.
Dhoni who had a poor run at the beginning stages of the tournament went on to win the Man of the Match award in the finals for his unbeaten 91 off 79 balls. His 91 contained nine fours and two sixes. His partner at the other end Yuvraj Singh won the Man of the Se ries award for notching up 362 runs and claiming 15 scalps in the tournament. In the finals he remained unbeaten at 21. Malinga (2-42) was the only weaponry in the Lankan bowling to make some dent. Spinners Suraj Randiv and Muttiah Muralitharan proved costly when they jointly gave away 82 runs without claiming a wicket thus ending Lanka’s dreams.
Winning the toss, Lankan skipper Sangakkara elected to bat first and Mahela Jayawardene scored an unbeaten 103 and his 14th one-day international century at the 30,000 jam packed stadium. Sangakkara (48), Thilan Samaraweera (21), Nuwan Kulasekara (32) and Thisara Perera (22 n.o.) gave able support to Jayawardene to help build a respectable total. Jayawardene joined the band of those cricketers who scored a ton in the finals of the World Cup. They are Clive Lloyd (West Indies, 1975), Vivian Richards (West Indies, 1979), Aravinda de Silva (Sri Lanka 1996), Ricky Ponting (Australia, 2003) and Adam Gilchrist (Australia 2007). However, they were in the winning teams.
Zaheer Khan who led the Indian pace attack bowled three maiden overs on the trot at the start of the match. S Sreesanth, who came in for injured Ashish Nehra shared the new ball with Zaheer, and was impressive in the first two overs. But subsequently was punished by Tillakaratne Dilshan. Zaheer dismissed Upul Tharanga after he was caught by Virender Sehwag at first slip. In the mandatory power play, Lanka had scored 31 for one. The finals saw some exceptional fielding by Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina and Sachin.
Dilshan’s 49 off 33 balls helped him to score 500 runs, and become the tournament’s fifth batsman to score so many runs. The other batsmen to reach this figure are Sachin Tendulkar (twice), Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting and Jayawardene.
In the run up to the finals at Mumbai, the Indians defeated Australia by five wickets in the quarter finals at Motera stadium in Ahmedabad. India ended the OZ run dream of scoring a hattrick. The Aussies had won the World Cup in 2003 and 2007. India went on to defeat Pakistan in the semi-final at Mohali to set up a final clash with the Lankans, who earlier had defeated New Zealanders in the other semi final at Colombo. The Mohali semi-final was a keenly contested match as the Prime Ministers of both the countries and other political leaders were present in full strength to witness the match. India won by 29 runs, thanks to some beautiful bowling by Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh. In the semi-final Sachin scored 85 after the Pakistanis gave him four lives. In the group matches, India lost only to South Africa.
After winning the World Cup, iconic batsman Sachin Tendulkar said that he couldn’t have asked for anything more than this. Being a member of six world cup teams, Tendulkar said that winning the World Cup was the proudest moment of his life. He said that this was possible because of his teammates.
Another star performer of the finals, Gambhir said that he was excited to play in front of the home crowd. When asked about what innings he would like to play in the World Cup again, he said that it would be the unbeaten 150 against Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens in 2009. Recalling the match, the Delhi batsman said that in that innings, he had carried his bat through in the 315-run chase.
The dashing batsman said that there were murmurs that he had not been converting the starts, but in the finals, he had silenced his critics by handling the pressure at the crucial time. Gambhir gives full marks to coach Gary Kirsten, who not only understood him as a professional but also as a person to help him achieve his mark.
The whole stadium burst into a song the moment Dhoni hit the winning six. There were jubilant scenes and fireworks not only at the stadium but across the country. People came out to celebrate the event. Some of the Indian players ran on to the field and emotions ran high. Some like Bhajji and Yuvraj were shedding tears of joy. Later the men in Blue carried the Little Master on their shoulders for a victory lap of the field. Skipper Dhoni later collected the World Cup from Sharad Pawar.
After accepting the Man of the Match award, Dhoni said that after the win there would be no questions asked, otherwise explanations would have to be provided for playing Sreesanth instead of R Ashwin and coming into bat ahead of Yuvraj. He said that he was thankful to the team management and senior players for supporting him to end the tournament on a winning note. Regretting that Gambhir was unable to score a ton, Dhoni said that he was himself to blame for it.
Yuvraj Singh received the Man of the Tournament award from Clive Lloyd for scoring 362 runs and 15 wickets in the tournament. He thanked Narendra Hirwani for the bowling tips and was the consistent cricketer in the tournament and also won four Man of the Match award. He paid special thanks to Sourav Ganguly under whom he gained his country colours for all the support and encouragement. There was word of praise for MSD who supported him. At the felicitation ceremony hosted by President Pratibha Patil, Yuvraj Singh said that they had to raise the bar all the time and couldn’t afford to be complacent as they have to maintain their No 1 status.
Speaking about Sachin’s moist eyes after the win, Yuvraj said that it was an emotional moment as it was dream come true. He said the team was glad that they were able to do it for him and the country.
Even as the party continues, congratulations are pouring in. The BCCI has announced a cash prize of Rs 1 crore to every player. The BCCI has also awarded the support staff and the selectors for the win. Not to lag behind are state governments like Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, who have also announced some more prizes. The MCD also plans to waive property taxes for four Delhi players, while Maharashtra has sought a Bharat Ratna for Sachin Tendulkar, a Jharkhand university plans to confer a honorary Doctorate on M S Dhoni. Well, the party has just begun and one hopes that India under the able leadership of MSD would win the T20 World Cup to be played in Sri Lanka next year.
Now that the fourth edition of Indian Premier League gets off on April 8, two new teams have been added. They are Kochi IPL and Pune Warriors. The latter would be led by Yuvraj Singh, while Sreesanth would feature in the Kochi team. Gautam Gambhir has got a new home and would captain the Kolkata Knight Riders this season. The Deccan Chargers would be led by Kumar Sangakkara. Happy Entertainment.