16 April 2011
03 April 2011
India beats Sri Lanka to lift Cricket World Cup 2011- Jayawardene heroics in vain
Posted by WJB on 12:12 AM
Indian Team led themselves to their second World Cup victory since 1983 after beating Sri Lanka in an intense an equally matched final. India went through some rigorous test of guts, nerves, and character throughout the tournament and went on to lift cricket's biggest honour in an emphatic way. MS Dhoni who promoted himself above Yuvraj Singh , only the first time in the World Cup was the cornerstone of the grand finale who went onto score a match winning 91.
Sri Lanka electing to bat first in a controversial toss, which was called twice due to confusion went onto amass a competitive 274-6 after being down 182-5 by the 40th over. It was Sri Lanka's former captain Mahela Jayawerdene who sailed his team to a fighting total with an unbeaten 103, which some lower middle order cameos by Kulasekara and Perera. Yuvraj Singh as always produced gold with an excellent figures of 49-2.
Indian in history making chase went onto lose two early wickets, as Malinga struck early with just the second ball of the innings trapped Sehwag leg before , after challenging Aleem Dar's decision the DRS revealed the ball was going to hit middle wicket. In the 7th over Malinga again struck, this time getting Tendulkar caught behind. With 31-2 , India were tottering but some solid play by Gambhir and Kohli they were able to establish a solid partnership extending total to 114 till Kohli was dismissed by Dilshan. MS Dhoni rose to the occasion and rook the reins, who at no point was in pressure and went on playing solid cricket along with Gambhir who together built the partnership of 109, when Gambhir was dismissed for 97. After his dismissal most of the job was done, after that it was just nudging around which was successfully done along with Yuvraj Singh and went to achieve the victory by Dhoni with a six of Kulasekara. After that it was all emotions of the field which started when Yuvraj went onto hug Dhoni , and with that the Indian team was all over the place.
Dhoni went onto win the Man of the match award for his unbeaten match winning performance of 91 , whereas Yuvraj Singh won the Man of the Tournament for his exceptional All round performance.
