It had been 28 years since Kapil Dev from India lifted the trophy and a billion dreams for more than a decade finally came true as India, where Cricket is a religion won the world cup 2011 and walked all the way to the glory. The coveted trophy was lifted by the Indian Captain MS Dhoni after India won the match by 6 wickets against Sri Lanka.
The start to the match was not as smooth as one would have hoped as toss happened twice. First time, the referee dint hear the call from the Sri Lankan Captain Sangakkara and the coin was tossed again by Dhoni. It was second time lucky for the Sri Lankan camp as the Captain won the toss and chose to bat first. Its not the first time the Captains made mistake in reading the pitch. Sri Lanka went in with Randiv, Perera and Kulasekara, making 3 changes, dropping Mendis and Herath and missing Angelo Matthews due to an injury. India went for Sreesanth instead of Ashwin. Both teams suffered for the changes.
Batting first, Sri Lanka were off to a terrible start, starting too slow because of some quality bowling by Zaheer Khan and were scoring at 2 runs an over. This forced Tharanga for a mistake and he got out to Zak edging one to Dhoni. Dilshan dint last too long either. What followed this was pure class of Sangakkara and Jayawardena who put on a 62 runs partnership scoring quickly. Sanga got out trying to cut a wide delivery from the man with the golden arms, Yuvraj Singh. He made 48 runs. Mahela was not going to go that easily. He carried on with ease and was getting runs at will. His knock was probably the best knock of the tournament. His deft touches kept on going for boundary and he was in his class today. He helped Sri Lanka to get to 274 runs in the end. They made 68 runs in the batting powerplay and Mahela made 103 from 88 balls. Kulasekara and Perera helped him in the process. Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh took 2 wickets each.
India chasing a record total to win in the wc final, which only 2 teams had succeeded in the history of the wc finals, started on a bad note losing Sehwag and Tendulkar cheaply for 31 runs. Both were the victims of Malinga's super first spell. Then Kohli and Gambhir, the young brigade took the game ahead with a crucial match saving partnership of 83 runs at a good run rate and this took the total to 114 runs for 2 wickets and Kohli fell for a super caught and bowled by Dilshan. He made 35 from 49 balls. Then came Dhoni and played the winning innings of the match and cleared his due for a big one. Along with Gambhir, he put on 109 runs and this took the match away from the Lankans. Gambhir got out falling 3 short of a deserving century. Dhoni with Yuvraj saw through the innings for India. Dhoni made 91 runs from 79 balls. A true captains knock guiding the team to win. Dhoni got the winning runs by hitting a huge six. It was a deserving win and India looked totally dominant and they put on a message to the cricketing world- "Beware, the Champions are here"
Sri Lanka 274/6 ( Mahela 103*, Yuvraj 2-49)
India 277/3 ( Gambhir 97, Dhoni 91*, Malinga 2-42) won by 6 wickets.
