India Wins World Cup-2011

* India overcome Jayawardane and Malinga challenge

* Gambhir anchors India innings

* Dhoni pilots India to victory


Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni struck a six to bring the World Cup to India on Saturday after 28 years. Chasing a target of 275, India won by 6 wickets and with 10 balls to spare at the Wankhede stadium, Mumbai, thus becoming the first country to win a World Cup on home soil.

Dhoni and Gambhir were the architects of the successful run chase. Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh ably supported them.

Winning a controversial toss, Sri Lanka went on to post a competitive total. Mahela Jayawardene paced his innings beautifully to score an unbeaten 103 and helped Sri Lanka reach 274. However, the India batting over ran the target even though Lasith Malinga provided the Sri Lankan’s with a perfect opportunity by getting rid of Virenedar Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar cheaply. Sadly, the Sri Lanka bowlers were unable to capitalize on the breach and appeared to have lost hope once they confronted a resolute Gambhir and tigerish Dhoni.

Gautam Gambhir came in at a time when the Indian run chase could have either become bogged down or crashed like a house of cards. He played an innings that slowly but surely brought India back in control by completely nullifying the Murali threat. He was always on the look out for runs and rotated the strike in such a way that gave Dhoni sufficient breathing space to find his form. Unfortunately, with his century a stroke away, Gambhir lost his head and lost his wicket.

Thankfully, Dhoni and Yuvraj carried on and completed the formalities. As usual, the BCCI reduced this sublime moment, by immediately announcing that the Indian team members will receive one crore each. They could have done better by announcing this in a meeting felicitating the Indian team.