India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni played a brilliant captain’s knock to lead his team to its second ever ICC Cricket World Cup title.
Dhoni, named Man of the Match, remained unbeaten on 91 (79b, 8×4, 2×6) to lead India to a famous win at the Wankhede Stadium.
India chased down Sri Lanka’s stiff target of 274 for 6 in 50 overs, as it ended at 277 for four in 48.2 overs.
The other star of the win was Gautam Gambhir who played a massive part in reviving the India innings in the chase.
Gambhir shared two crucial stands. First with Virat Kohli, he added 83 runs for the third wicket. Later with skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni he added 109 runs for the fourth wicket.
Gambhir finally fell for 97 (122b, 9×4), three short of a well-deserved hundred, when he was clean bowled by Thisara Perera.India recovered well after losing its openers, Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar early. Lasith Malinga stunned a capacity crowd by dismissing Virender Sehwag off the second ball of the India innings.
Later he got Sachin Tendulkar edging to the wicketkeeper. India had slipped to 31 for 2, but Gambhir and Kohli stepped up to the challenge.
Earlier, Jayawardena stroked a delightful unbeaten 103 to take Sri Lanka to a challenging 274 for six.
Jayawardena was the only Sri Lanka batsman to exceed 50, held the innings together.
Sri Lanka’s innings was given a major push in the final five overs as it made 63 runs off the batting powerplay. Jayawardena scored his century off 84 balls with 13 boundaries.
The other major contributor in the Sri Lanka innings was captain Kumar Sangakkara who made 48 off 67 balls with five boundaries.
Jayawardena shared crucial stands, first with Sangakkara of 62 for the third wicket. Later Jayawardena, added 57 runs for the fourth wicket with Thilan Samaraweera (21: 34b, 2×4).
Just when the innings seemed to require some energy, Nuwan Kulasekara scored a brisk 32 off 30 balls with one boundary and a six. Kulasekara added 60 runs with Jayawardena.
Later, Thisara Perera scored 22 off 9 balls with three boundaries and one six. Perera was particularly severe on Zaheer Khan.Zaheer, who did not give away any run in his first three overs, ended with figures of 10-3-60-2 thanks to the Perera and Kulasekara onslaught.
The other successful bowler for India was Yuvraj Singh with figures of 2-49.
Fittingly Dhoni and Yuvraj added 54 runs for the fifth wicket to lead India to the title.
