CRICKET INDIA ARE THE WORLD CHAMPIONS
Mar 20th, 2011 | By The Sentinel Online | Category: Sports
The 2011 International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup tournament, the 10th in the 50 – 50 format, was, for the first time, co-hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The participating teams were the ten ‘test nations’ and the four final qualifiers from the associate nations. The ten test nations were – defending champions Australia, India, South Africa, England, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, New Zealand, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. The four qualifiers were – Ireland, Canada, Kenya and Netherlands. .
As expected, despite some credible effort by the associate members in the group matches, it was eight of the test nations that made it to the quarter-final stage.
In the first of the quarter-finals, a disappointing West Indies side lost its way completely against Pakistan’s spin bowlers and could only make 112 runs, all out. In reply, Pakistan had no difficulty in knocking off the required runs for no wickets.
In an exciting second quarter-final contest, defending champions, Australia, that, incidentally, had, earlier in December,2010-January.2011, lost the famous ‘Ashes Test’ series against their ‘old enemy’, England, at home, failed narrowly to overcome India
Africa’s brightest hope, South Africa. lost the third quarter-final they played against .New Zealand by 49 runs. (The scores – New Zealand 221, South Africa 172 all out)
In the fourth and last quarter-final, a tired England side (but, no doubt, still in jubilant mood after their triumph in the Ashes Test against the Aussies), simply crumbled against Sri Lanka whose two openers, Tharanga and Dilshan, both made centuries in a record unbroken stand of 231 runs. This was in reply to England’s 229 runs – Sri Lanka winning by 10 wickets.
In the two semi-finals, Sri Lanka beat New Zealand and India overcame Pakistan to emerge, deservedly, no doubt, as the finalists. (The beauty of the India-Pakistan encounter was that the match was watched by their two Presidents sitting together!)
The final was played at Mumbai, India, on 2nd April, 2011. Sri Lanka won the toss and opened their innings, once again, with Tharanga and Dilshan . But, sadly, they failed to repeat their heroics against England. Tharanga departed very early for only 2 runs, Dilshan contributed a patient 38.and it was to Sangakkara, 48, and Jayawardene, 103 not out, to push the score to a respectable 274 runs for 5 wickets at the end of their 50 overs
Needing 275 for victory, India’s openers did not fare any better. Sehwag fell for no score, and Tenduker, their most prolific run getter was our for a paltry 18 runs.But in came Gambbir and skipper, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and,with dogged determination, they pushed the score steadily along. When Gambbir was out for a magnificent 97, it was left to Kohli who made a useful 35 to give support to his skipper. Finally, in the 49th over, with India’s score at 271, skipper Dhoni hit a towering six over ‘mid-on’ to bring his score to 91 not out, and give India another World Cup victory after their first one in 1983. (Final scores :Sri Lanka – 274 runs for 5 wickets and India – 277 runs for 4 wickets. – India winning by 6 wickets) ∞