The final match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011

The final match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 was played between India and Sri Lanka at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. Sri Lanka have won the toss and elected to bat first. Sreesanth replaced Nehra for this match and Randiv replaced Matthews.

The Indians bowled very well in the first 10 overs not giving away anything to the Lankans. Zaheer Khan was very impressive with three maiden overs and a wicket of Tharanga for just 2 runs from 20 balls. From there onwards, Dilshan and Sangakkara started building up and were looking good until Harbhajan picked up Dilshan and Yuvraj got Sagakkara out. Jayawardena came to the crease and started building up partnership with Samaraweera but soon Samaraweera became a victim of Yuvraj Singh. Nuwan Kulasekara joined with Jayawardena and both of played really well to get Lankans a fighting total in the final of the Cricket World Cup.

In the process Jayawardean got to a brilliant 100 and Perera has added valuable 22 runs of just nine balls. They got nearly 60 runs in he batting powerplay and Sri Lanka posted 274/6 on the board in 50 overs.

Losing the wicket of Virender Sehwag in just the first over is really not a good start for India chasing a target of 275 runs in this very important final. Kohli joined Sachin and the little master looked to be very comfortable playing his shots nicely until he got picked up by Malinga. Sachin scored 18 runs of just 14 balls. Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli then batted really well and started getting a partnership which is very important at that point. Kohli played well and got out for 35 runs to Dilshan who took a splendid catch of his own bowling.

MS Dhoni came to the crease and both Gautam and Dhoni started doing just the right thing picking up ones and twos and hitting boundaries when required. They went on exceptionally well not allowing any pressure to build up and not giving Sri Lankans the chance to attack them. In the process Gambhir go out for 97 runs falling just 3 runs shot of a hundred. Yuvraj Singh came to the crease and he along with Dhoni finished off the things and Dhoni gave India a win in style by hitting a six.

India won the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 by 6 wickets. The crowd celebrated the victory and there were some emotional scenes in the ground in the Indian team after winning the cup in 28 years gap.

Dhoni was awarded the Man of the match for his brilliant 91 runs in 79 balls. Yuvraj Singh with 15 wickets and 361 runs was given the Player of the Tournament award.

Indian Cricket Team