Dhoni wins World Cup for India

By Suneer Chowdhary

 

They often say, cometh the hour, cometh the man. Today, there were two men who came to the party when the hour had seemingly darkened for the Indians while chasing 275 for a World Cup win. Gautam Gambhir, who had gone into this game with a tournament that would have hardly endeared him to his fans and Mahendra Singh Dhoni who was the only Indian top-order batsman to have not scored a 50 in this tournament were architects of what was a chase that could easily be described as one of the best under pressure.

By Suneer Chowdhary

 

Mumbai: Apr 2, 2011

 

They often say, cometh the hour, cometh the man. Today, there were two men who came to the party when the hour had seemingly darkened for the Indians while chasing 275 for a World Cup win. Gautam Gambhir, who had gone into this game with a tournament that would have hardly endeared him to his fans and Mahendra Singh Dhoni who was the only Indian top-order batsman to have not scored a 50 in this tournament were architects of what was a chase that could easily be described as one of the best under pressure.

 

The Indian fans had come to the Wankhede hoping for a century of centuries from Sachin Tendulkar but they were in for a nasty shock early. His Mumbai Indians teammate Lasith Malinga got an edge from Tendulkar’s bat to the wicket-keeper, thwarting an innings in the bud that could have been a thorn in the Lankan flesh. The dismissal had made it worse for the Indians as Virender Sehwag had been earlier sent back in the very first over of the innings. India were 31 for 2 in the seventh over and in much trouble.

 

The recovery process began with the batting of Gambhir and Virat Kohli. The two batsmen had earlier been involved in a humongous partnership against the same team while chasing a 300-plus score with the openers having departed early in a 2009-game at Kolkata.

 

The two added 83 for the third wicket, in turn also keeping Malinga at bay while allowing Muthiah Muralitharan his share of dots – without allowing them a wicket.
What worked for the Indians is that they kept the run-rate more than five per over throughout their partnership. This put the pressure back on the Lankans, who also began to struggle with the dew that had begun to engulf the ground. 

 

Kohli’s dismissal with the Indian score at 114 left the Indians in a bit of a pickle. Dhoni’s decision to promote himself to the number five position ahead of the man in form, Yuvraj Singh, surprised many of those watching but it was a move that paid rich dividends.

 

With the captain at the other end, Gambhir tightened up at the other end as well and the pair were involved in a partnership that almost took the team home. It was a partnership that looked untroubled from the start but what was even more surprising was that the Sri Lankan captain did not get their premier bowlers, Malinga or Muralitharan to get the wickets.

 

Dhoni took toll of this and the partnership with Gambhir yielded 109 runs, a stand that took the team closer to the total. Gambhir did miss his century, getting out for 97, but Dhoni finished off with a six that got him to 91 and his side to a World Cup win.

 

Sri Lanka had earlier started off slowly thanks to Zaheer Khan’s first three overs, which were all maidens. Only 31 came off the first ten overs of the innings with the loss of Upul Tharanga’s wicket but that allowed the duo of Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan to get together and score quicker than their start.

 

Both Dilshan and Sangakkara, got starts to their innings, getting 33 and 48 respectively even as the run-rate crawled back to the four-run per over mark. The wicket of Dilshan would have probably worried the Lankans given that he has been the best batsman of the tournament.

 

Mahela Jayawardene had other ideas. Coming into the game with the form that was anything but one to rely on, his was one of the innings that looked from the very beginning that he was looking for a big one. The timing was right from the word go and his century came off only 84 balls – an impressive innings in the context of the game. Boundaries were deftly found and the century looked like a formality.

 

The support came from two unlikely quarters; Nuwan Kulasekera getting to a 30-ball 32 while Thisara Perera’s 22 coming off only nine balls. The bowling was completely deflated by this; even Zaheer conceding 60 off his last seven overs. 275 was going to be a very stiff total to chase in a big game like this but not too many had reckoned with Dhoni’s bravado with the bat.

 

Brief Scores: Sri Lanka 274 for 6 in 50 overs (Mahela Jayawardene 103*, Kumar Sangakkara 48; Yuvraj Singh 2 for 49, Zaheer Khan 2 for 60) lost to India 277 for 4 in 48.2 overs (Gautam Gambhir 97, MS Dhoni 91*; Lasith Malinga 2 for 42, T Dilshan 1 for 27) by six wickets.

 

Man of the Match: Mahendra Singh Dhoni

 

(Suneer is a Mumbai-based cricket writer and can be contacted at suneerchowdhary@gmail.com and Tweets here @suneerchowdhary)

 

Pictures © Getty Images

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