It was the 2011 Cricket World Cup Final was an One Day International (ODI) game played with India as well as Sri Lanka at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, India on the 2 April 2011 on a Saturday. The final match of the tenth year of the World Cup, it was the first time two Asia teams were able to play one another in a World Cup final. India took the victory by six wickets. It was the first World Cup win after the 1983 tournament–and became the third team to have won the title several times, following Australia (1987 1999, 2003, 2007 and then 2015) in addition to the West Indies (1975 and 1979). India became the first country to win Cricket World Cup in their home country. However, it has been claimed that the final game was fixed with the intention of fixing it. Sri Lanka sold the match to India. The former Sri Lankan Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage admitted “The 2011 Cricket World Cup final was fixed. I stand by what I say. The incident occurred when I was Minister of Sports. ” Earlier the former Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga had also called for the match to fix and demanded a investigation into the issue.
Both teams had progressed through three stages to reach the final. India had defeated only two times at that point, while losing to South Africa and tying with England in the group stage. Sri Lanka had won all but one of the matches that were played against Pakistan. Pakistan was the opponent. Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara chose to bat first after having won the toss. The team was slow to score until the 17th over at which point they lost both openers. Sangakkara scored 62 runs along with Mahela Jayawardene, before being disqualified for 48 runners. While wickets remained falling at one point, Jayawardene scored 103 runs in 88 balls; he played in a partnership of 66 runs with Thisara Perera. The pair increased Sri Lanka’s total to 274 at the close of the innings.
In response, India lost their opener Virender Sehwag to the second ball of the game that was sent out LBW through Lasith Malinga. Sachin Tendulkar, too, got out quickly. The batsmen following him, Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli scored the score to 83 in just 15 overs before Kohli was dismissed in the 22nd over. India captain MS Dhoni promoted himself up the order joined Gambhir and they both added 109 runs, an Indian record in the World Cup final. Gambhir went out for his 97-run score in the 42nd over. India was able to reduce the score and won the match by six wickets in the 49th over. Dhoni was named to be the “man of the tournament” for scoring 91 runs, while his compatriot Yuvraj Singh was named the title of “man for the match”.
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The game was watched by more than 42,000 spectators at the venue as well as 135 million viewers via the television screen in India. It was the second time at a time in World Cup history that a home nation won the final and the first time for a host country to win on their home ground.
2011 Cricket World Cup 2011 Cricket World Cup was the tenth World Cup, organized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The tournament was played between 19 February and 2 April 2011. Co-hosted by India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, the tournament is the third World Cup to be played in the Indian subcontinent. The ICC decided to exclude Pakistan due to security concerns. There were 14 teams participating and four associate members of ICC — Kenya, Canada, Ireland and Netherlands.
The match was the tenth World Cup final and was played at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. It became the first time the city had hosted an World Cup final, and was the second final which was held in India, after the 1987 final which was played at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. The final of 2011 was the first time to include two teams from the same continent, and the first time that two hosts competed in the final.
India are making their third appearance in an World Cup final. The previous time, they made it to the final in 1983 and lost in 2003. Sri Lanka was appearing in their third World Cup final; breakthrough winners against Australia in 1996, they ended as runners up (also to Australia) in the previous World Cup in 2007. Before this game, India and Sri Lanka were playing each other seven times during World Cup history with Sri Lanka leading by four wins with two defeats, as well as one match ended in zero-result. In One Day Internationals, India took the lead over Sri Lanka with 75 victories against 52 wins of Sri Lanka, while 11 games ended with no result.
The final attracted huge attention. The President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa, a known cricket enthusiast, announced he would attend the match along and his children. Following this, the Indian Chief of Staff Pratibha Patil was also announcing her decision to join the match.
The road to the finals
Sri Lanka qualified for the knockouts with a second-place finish within Group A. They were victorious in four of their six matches, but suffered a loss against Pakistan and Australia ended up losing. With points being equal to Australia They were placed second in the group due to their better running rate net.
India were included into Group B in which they finished second behind South Africa. India won four of their six games but lost one to South Africa while their game against England was one of the most scoring matches.
Sri Lanka had clinically demolished England in the quarter-final winning with a score of 10 wickets. Both Sri Lankan openers, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga made unbeaten centuries and set a new world record stand for the first wicket during the World Cup. They also won the New Zealand semi-final was more fiercely contested but yet won without difficulty in the hands of Sri Lanka. The matches highlighted the unconventional bowling of the pace spearhead Lasith Malinga, a stifling fielding and the batting prowess from players from the Sri Lankan top order.
The two knockout matches played by India were intense contests. Australia was a very strong team as well as the defending champions and India required a very good performance to reduce Australia down to 260 before they could achieve the goal even when wickets fell on a regular basis. India as well as their semi-final adversaries, Pakistan, have historically been adversaries. There was immense public pressure on both teams during the match hosted by the Prime and Ministers of both countries. India batted first before they defeated Pakistan by 29 runs.
Team composition
India has largely kept the same team that played in the semi-final match against Pakistan in the semi-final, with only one change. Ashish Nehra, left-arm medium pacer sustained a fractured finger when he was fielding during that game which was then replaced by a second pacer, Sreesanth. India was widely rated as having the best batting lineup in the tournament, and chose to back this strength throughout the season by fielding seven bowlers and seven batsmen. Due to Yuvraj Singh’s performance using both ball and bat in his tournament India were able to play only four specialist bowlers. Yuvraj bowled his full total of 10 innings in several games, including the semi-final match against Pakistan. In the four bowling slots, Zaheer was the pace spearhead, backed in the majority of matches by Munaf Patel. Harbhajan Singh took the role of the most frequent off-spinner. This fourth spot was filled by different bowlers in different matches, which included Sreesanth, Nehra, leg-spinner Piyush Chawla, or even off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. The captain picked Nehra over Ashwin during the game against Pakistan also. Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni admitted that he preferred having three seamers since it gave him more options. There were already proven spinners in Harbhajan and Yuvraj and could also use a number of other Indian players who could play part-time spin (including Sachin Tendulkar, Suresh Raina, as well as Virender Sehwag).
Sri Lanka made four changes to their team for the semi-final. All-rounder Angelo Mathews had suffered a quadriceps muscle tear and was unable to take part in the. Sri Lanka knew the Indians their strength in batting therefore they needed be able to secure wickets and force them to play. This led to their choosing an entire bowling team. The spin bowler Ajantha Mendis performed well throughout the tournament, but his record was not great against India in pre-World Cup clashes and was not selected for the final. Also, spinner Rangana Herath was dropped. On-spinner Suraj Randiv and batsman Chamara Kapugedera were brought in via Sri Lanka to strengthen the side. Seamers Nuwan Kulasekara, and Thisara Perera, both of whom had played in the earlier stages of the group, were also drafted into the squad. Spinner legend Muttiah Muralitharan had minor injuries but was chosen to play. The player had announced that he would quit One Day International cricket after the World Cup, so this was his final game. The semi-final match played in the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo was his last ODI game played on his home turf as he had been taken around the stadium in a position on his fellow players’ shoulders on a lap of honour after the game.
After match
Receiving in Sri Lanka
Although Sri Lankan spectators were initially unhappy, they eventually stood up for their team and welcomed them at the airport with cheers, garlands and celebration. Sri Lanka’s excellent performance throughout the World Cup was appreciated, and it was recognised that making it to the final was a significant achievement in itself. The opening batsman Tillekaratne Dilshan was the highest running player of the tournament while Sangakkara was the highest third (the third highest scorer was Sachin Tendulkar from India).
The Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa hosted The High Tea with the Sri Lankan players and spouses on the grounds of the Presidential House, Temple Trees.
A change with the Sri Lanka team
After a couple of days of discussion, Kumar Sangakkara, the Sri Lankan captain, announced on 5 April that he was quitting the captain’s post for the One Day International and Twenty20 teams for the long-term benefit that the Sri Lankan team. As per his statement, they were both 37 at the time of the 2015 World Cup, could not be sure of his place in the team at that time and it’s best for a new captain to be prepared now, and who will be at the zenith of his career at that tournament. He also stated that he was prepared to lead the team during the next tour to England and perhaps Australia If the selection committee believed this would aid the transition to a new captaincy. After Sangakkara’s announcement, Mahela Jayawardene announced her resignation from the post of vice-captain, and Aravinda de Silva from the position of Chairman of the Selectors.
