Mahendra Singh Dhoni leads India to World Cup glory

Mtoday news

Mumbai, April 2: Twenty-eight years on from the match that transformed the history of world cricket, India recaptured the crown that Kapil Dev and his men first lifted at Lord’s in 1983, and this time they did it in their very own back yard. An iron-willed 97 from Gautam Gambhir was matched for intensity by the finest captain’s innings since Ricky Ponting at Johannesburg eight years ago, as Mahendra Singh Dhoni trumped a poetic century from Mahela Jayawardene to pull off the highest run-chase ever achieved in a World Cup final.

 

 

 

 

Against a triumphant backdrop at the Wankhede Stadium, victory was sealed by six wickets with 10 balls to spare, as Dhoni - who had promoted himself to No. 5 to heap extra lashings of responsibility onto his own shoulders - rushed through the gears as the victory target drew nearer. With 15 required from 17 balls, he flicked Sri Lanka’s only true threat, Lasith Malinga, through midwicket for consecutive boundaries, before smoking Nuwan Kulasekara over long-on to spark the most delirious scenes of celebration ever seen on the subcontinent.

 

 

However, the final margin did little justice to the tussle that had preceded it. Even the toss ended up being disputed, as Kumar Sangakkara’s initial call was drowned out by the crowd, but it was the ebb and flow of Zaheer Khan’s day that epitomised the fluctuations of a compelling contest. Zaheer opened his account with three consecutive maidens and the scalp of Upul Tharanga in a peerless spell of 5-3-6-1, only to be clobbered for 17 and 18 runs in his ninth and tenth overs respectively, as Sri Lanka monstered 63 runs in the batting Powerplay to post an imposing 274 for 6.


Risky decisions paid off, says Dhoni


Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Saturday took potshots at the critics of his team, saying that the World Cup triumph has answered them.

He said that a couple of decisions taken by him in Saturday’s summit showdown against Sri Lanka could have been criticised had his side not won the World Cup.

 

 

"A few decisions I have taken today, including why I brought in S Sreesanth instead of Ravichandran Ashwin and why I promoted myself in the batting order ahead of Yuvraj who has been in great form. It could have been that the decisions cost the match," he said at the post-match presentation after India beat Sri Lanka by six wickets.

"We have been hearing a lot of things during this tournament and so it feels great to win the World Cup," he said.

"I always wanted to give chance to give chance to younger players by sending them up the order. Today, I thought I would take the responsibility myself. It was more like proving myself and not to others," he said.

 

 

Asked specifically if the World Cup triumph was in a way telling the critics to shut up as the players would do their job with their performance, he said, "In India it would be very rude to say like that."

"We spent the last 30-35 days together in the field and the dressing room thinking of this victory only and we have achieved that now," he added.