India's 2011 World Cup Victory
Dhoni's SupermenThe 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup was played in India, Sri Lanka, and (for the first time) Bangladesh. Fourteen national cricket teams took part, including ten full members and four associate members of the ICC. The final was between India and Sri Lanka at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. India won the tournament, defeating Sri Lanka by 6 wickets, becoming the first country to win the Cricket World Cup final on home soil.
Batting first, Mahela Jayawardene hit 103 as Sri Lanka capitalised on the batting powerplay to post a decent 274 for six. Chasing 275 for the first win in 28 years, the Indians held their nerves as they rode on Gautam Gambhir's 97 and Mahendra Singh Dhoni's unbeaten 91 to overhaul the Sri Lanka target with 10 balls to spare and send the cricket-crazy nation into a frenzy. The players, many of them with tears in their eyes, rushed to the ground to hug each other as Dhoni finished it off in style by hitting a six, as fire crackers lit up the evening sky to mark the moment.
ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 Matches, Scores, Results
Indian Team :
- Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Wicket Keeper) (c)
- Virender Sehwag (vc)
- Gautam Gambhir
- Sachin Tendulkar
- Yuvraj Singh
- Suresh Raina
- Virat Kohli
- Yusuf Pathan
- Zaheer Khan
- Harbhajan Singh
- Ashish Nehra
- Munaf Patel
- S. Sreesanth
- Piyush Chawla
- Ravichandran Ashwin
Dhoni, whose Test and ODI records are the best among all Indian captains to date, scored 91 not out off just 79 balls to singlehandedly take India to victory in the finals of the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup. Under his captaincy, India has also won the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, the CB Series of 2007–08, the 2010 Asia Cup and the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy.