Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India’s World Cup-winning captain, admitted he had proved a point to himself by delivering with the bat under the highest pressure of all in Saturday’s final.
Dhoni revealed he had taken a gamble by pushing himself up the batting order for the game in Mumbai but it was one that paid off as he finished unbeaten on 91, sharing a crucial partnership of 103 with Gautam Gambhir that took the game out of Sri Lanka’s reach and handed India their first world title since 1983.
Dhoni struggled to make significant scores in the previous two games against Pakistan and Australia, where he posted 25 and seven runs respectively, and confessed that the magnitude of those occasions had affected his performances.
“The pressure had got to me in the previous games,” Dhoni said. “In this match I wanted to bat up the order and (coach) Gary (Kirsten) backed me as did the senior players. I had a point to prove to myself.”
Dhoni also took a risk by including Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, a seam bowler, instead of Ravichandran Ashwin, a reliable spinner, but he said those gambles strengthened his resolve to secure victory for his country.
Advertisement
“I took a quite few decisions tonight and if we hadn’t had won I would have been asked quite a few questions,” said Dhoni. “Why no Ashwin? Why Sreesanth? Why no Yuvraj (at five)? Why did I bat ahead? That pushed me and motivated to do well.”
Dhoni, who finished the game with a huge six to secure as India’s six-wicket win at the Wankhede Stadium, praised Gambhir who fell just three runs short of a century and Virat Kohli (35) who put on 83 for the third wicket.
Earlier, Lasith Malinga had removed openers Virender Sehwag (0) and Sachin Tendulkar (18) to leave the home side on a worrying 31-2 in pursuit of 274.
“Virat and Gautam batted brillantly. There were lots of singles and then with the help of bit of dew, we put pressure on their spinners. I would have liked Gautam to go on and get that big hundred,” said the Indian captain.
Yuvraj Singh, who was named man of the tournament, said victory had capped a remarkable period for India, the commercial powerhouse of the world game.
Advertisement
“This is unbelievable. We won the Under-19 World Cup, then the Twenty20 but this is the most special,” said Yuvraj, who was man of the match on four occasions.
“It’s for Sachin and for everyone else. Batting second means a lot of pressure but Gauti and MS played outstandingly. They played like it was a normal game. We batted like champions. Thank you India.”
Tendulkar, who won his first World Cup in six attempts, said it had been the proudest moment of his career.
“I couldn’t have asked for anything more than this. Winning the World Cup is the proudest moment of my life,” said Tendulkar, who remains on 99 international centuries.
“But thanks to my team-mates, without them, nothing would have happened. I couldn’t control my tears of joy. The team stuck together in the rough phases and proved people wrong who doubted our ability. Self-belief has been always there but in the last two years, we have been very consistent. It’s been great honour to be part of this team.”
Advertisement
The Board of Control for Cricket in India later announced that every player would receive $225,000 (£139,612) each for their efforts.
That will go some way to soothing the blow of a 10 per cent fine for each of the players (20 per cent for captain Dhoni) because of their slow over-rate.