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India Power Past Sri Lanka To Cricket World Cup Triumph

kds1980

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/9444277.stm


India beat Sri Lanka by six wickets in a pulsating final to deliver World Cup glory to their cricket-mad population for the first time since 1983.

Sri Lanka smashed 91 from their last 10 overs to post 274-6 in Mumbai, with Mahela Jayawardene making a superb 103.

India lost Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar early on but Gautam Gambhir and Mahendra Dhoni rebuilt the innings.

Gambhir was out for 97, but captain Dhoni's brilliant unbeaten 91 led India to a famous win with 10 ***** to spare.

The skipper, struggling for form throughout the tournament, played the innings of his life and sealed the victory with a phenomenal straight six that sailed high into the stands, providing the catalyst for euphoric celebrations in the {censored}hede Stadium.

Tendulkar's early dismissal for 18 ensured there was to be no fairytale 100th international century for Mumbai's favourite son. It was a very competitive total in the end, but India's batting came through. Gambhir took a risk or two, he should have been caught, but he settled down when Dhoni came in - and Dhoni batted magnificently. They call him Mr Cool here, he never flaps and his temperament stood him in good stead. It's a good result for 50-over cricket
Former England batsman Geoff Boycott on Test Match Special


But wonderful innings from Gambhir and Dhoni ensured the "Little Master" can finally get his hands on the sport's ultimate prize at the sixth attempt as India became the first host nation to win the tournament, while Jayawardene became the first player to score a hundred in the final and finish on the losing side.

Meanwhile, it was a sad end to the incredible career of Sri Lanka off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan who, having battled injuries throughout the event, failed to take a wicket in his last international match.

And when the Sri Lankan inquest begins, they will surely regret the decision to make four changes for the final, only one of which was enforced.

With off-spinner Ajantha Mendis dropped, replacement bowlers Thisara Perera, Nuwan Kulasekara and Suraj Randiv managed only one wicket between them from 26.2 overs.

Chasing a total 46 runs higher than the previous best under lights at the venue, prolific openers Sehwag and Tendulkar stepped out to a cacophony of noise.

But it only took two ***** for the mood inside the stadium to be transformed as Sehwag failed to get his bat on a full straight delivery from Lasith Malinga and was trapped in front of his stumps.

Tendulkar, seemingly carrying the hopes of a billion Indians on his shoulders, soon had the crowd in a frenzy with two sumptuous boundaries off Kulasekara, but hopes of him reaching the 100 century landmark in the final were to be sadly dashed.
Jayawardene's masterly hundred was his third in World Cups


Kumar Sangakkara's decision to give Malinga a fourth over with the new ball proved a masterstroke as the paceman tempted Tendulkar into a swipe outside off stump and a thick edge was taken low by the captain himself behind the stumps.

While Malinga wheeled away in celebration with his team-mates in pursuit, a stunned silence fell over the {censored}hede.

Gambhir and Virat Kohli would have been forgiven for going into their shell but the duo remained positive in seeing India to 105-2 off 20 overs.

Their partnership had reached 83 when Kohli got a leading edge to a Tillakaratne Dilshan delivery and was brilliantly caught one-handed by the bowler for 35.

Dhoni, whose previous highest score at the tournament was 34, took the brave decision to promote himself up the batting order above Yuvraj Singh and after a watchful start he started to find his range on his favoured off side.

The right-hander's partnership with the left-handed Gambhir kept the Sri Lanka bowlers guessing and gradually the duo chipped away at the total. PAST WORLD CUP WINNERS
1975: West Indies
1979: West Indies
1983: India
1987: Australia
1992: Pakistan
1996: Sri Lanka
1999: Australia
2003: Australia
2007: Australia


After taking the score past 200, Dhoni required treatment for a side strain but the skipper did not lose any focus as he leant back and chopped Muralitharan through the off side for four.

Without ever batting with the fluency of Jayawardene, Gambhir worked his way to within three of a famous hundred before he was clean bowled by Perera to give Sri Lanka hope.

With the score on 241-4, Sri Lanka thought they had run out Dhoni when Kapugadera's throw hit the stumps but with replays inconclusive, the India skipper was reprieved.

After 46 overs, Sangakkara made the surprise decision to throw the ball to Kulasekara instead of the clearly disgruntled Muralitharan and the tactic back-fired as India helped themselves to 11 runs.

The same number followed from Malinga's next over to put India on the brink of victory, before Yuvraj Singh took a single to give Dhoni the strike with four more runs needed.

The wicketkeeper-batsman's stunning final blow provided a fitting end to a memorable final.

Earlier, the coin toss was shrouded in confusion as the noise of the crowd rendered Sangakkara's call inaudible to match referee Jeff Crowe. He ordered a re-toss, which was won by the Sri Lanka captain, who opted to bat to the obvious frustration of his opposite number Dhoni.
The 109 stand between Gambhir and Dhoni was key to India's victory


When the action began, India settled the faster with seamer Zaheer Khan getting straight into rhythm.

Suffocating Upul Tharanga with a tight off stump line, he bowled three consecutive maidens before having the batsman caught at slip for two off a perfect outswinger.

Dilshan took his tournament run haul to exactly 500 before he was dismissed by Harbhajan Singh in the spinner's second over. The batsman attempted a sweep but the ball struck his arm and thigh pad before rebounding agonisingly on to his stumps.

Veteran pair Sangakkara and Jayawardene got the innings back on track with a partnership of 62 as Sri Lanka reached 122-2 in the 28th over.

But their stand was broken by Yuvraj as Sangakkara - two short of his half-century - attempted a square cut to a shorter ball and got a faint edge through to Dhoni.

Jayawardene, who reached fifty from 49 *****, produced an innings of impeccable touch and timing, scoring heavily in the third man area and keeping his score moving at a run a ball to drag his team towards a competitive total.

With Sreesanth leaking runs, Dhoni was forced to use part-time bowlers Tendulkar and Kohli before recalling Zaheer to the attack.

But it was the irrepressible Yuvraj who struck the next blow. Thilan Samaraweera got too far across his stumps attempting to sweep and was struck on the thigh. Simon Taufel's not out decision was overturned on review, with replays showing the ball would have struck middle stump.

Zaheer could not be kept out of the limelight for long and a superb slower ball totally deceived Chamara Kapugedera, who could only prod the ball tamely to Suresh Raina at mid-off.

At 183-5 going into the last 10 overs, India were well on top but with Jayawardene still at the crease there was every chance of Sri Lanka posting a competitive total.

With Kulasekara (32 off 30 *****) scoring quickly at the other end, the former skipper began to take calculated risks, accelerating through the 80s and 90s and bringing up his hundred off 84 ***** during the batting powerplay with consecutive boundaries off Zaheer.

Kulasekara's run out brought Perera to the crease with two overs remaining, and the all-rounder did exactly what was needed, swinging from the hip to smash 22 off nine deliveries, including 16 off the last four ***** of the innings.

But although the late flurry propelled Sri Lanka to a healthy total, Gambhir and Dhoni ensured it was India who joined Australia and the West Indies as the only sides to win the World Cup more than once.

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Gyani Jarnail Singh

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For the first time in my life i watched it all live....i never could see whats so exciting until i went to Punjab and saw everyone breathless all the time...i just couldnt understand such a broing game going on and on for hours...becasue in my country its all about FOOTBALL..Manchestor United and Brazillians and Spanish Rinaldos and all that..and a little bit of American Baseball ...no body ever mentions cricket in malaysia and is not played in nay school/college pitches... With all that hype with Pakistan and Mohali etc i decided to sit through just for the experience....
 

kds1980

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For the first time in my life i watched it all live....i never could see whats so exciting until i went to Punjab and saw everyone breathless all the time...i just couldnt understand such a broing game going on and on for hours...becasue in my country its all about FOOTBALL..Manchestor United and Brazillians and Spanish Rinaldos and all that..and a little bit of American Baseball ...no body ever mentions cricket in malaysia and is not played in nay school/college pitches... With all that hype with Pakistan and Mohali etc i decided to sit through just for the experience....

Gyani ji

Cricket has 3 versions T20 means 20 overs ,ODI means 50 over per side .AND TEST CRICKET means 5 days.What India have won is ODI world cup.

Cricket is like quite similar top sikhism as Test cricket is like Amritdhari and it is quite declining.The old purist of this game don't want T 2 version to become popular as they belive it will destroy the future generation who will just opt to play for T20 version as it is easy and money making too


Anyway I recommend you to start with T20 cricket as it is not easy for a newbie to watch cricket instantly and enjoy the game.
 

Randip Singh

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I must confess I find cricket incredibly boring, and I would rather watch paint dry. An enthused friend of mine who was rather excited about the victory, said that the victory was diue to a number of Punjabi and Sikh players? Is this true, or bravado?

The reason being for this that Tendulkar didn't do his usual magic.
 

Ambarsaria

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Randip Singh ji come on! Man of your wisdom and beautiful pace in thinking does not like cricket! Hard to believe (I don't like it much either)winkingmunda. Too slow for me. But in this particular case it was worth watching and was a good game.

If you think one day matches are slow, if I am not mistaken in my stay at Khalsa College Amritsar I have seen 7 day matches way back in time. This goes back a bit.

From what limited knowledge I have the following three were pivotal and great contributors with Yuvraj Singh being Man of the Tournament,


  • Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Captain (comes from Singh/Hindu marriage and I am not sure if he is Sikh but I am sure someone will correct me!)

  • Yuvraj Singh

  • Harbhajan Singh
Sat Sri Akal.
 

Ambarsaria

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Dhoni is a Hindu Rajput from Jharkhand
kds1980 ji thanks for correcting me.

You seem very knowledgeable in some of the usage of Singh by non-Sikhs. Do you believe that it goes back to the traditions when as many have stated that Hindus will basically call one of their family a Singh or as a way to thank the historic contribution of the Sikh Gurus and the Sikh faith in helping the then persecuted during Mughal times? Apparently Dhoni's father is Pan Singh (per Wiki) so I don't know when they would have started using Singh or it came into their family tree.

spnadmin ji delete this post if it is off-topic or let me know so.

Sat Sri Akal.
 

kds1980

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I must confess I find cricket incredibly boring, and I would rather watch paint dry. An enthused friend of mine who was rather excited about the victory, said that the victory was diue to a number of Punjabi and Sikh players? Is this true, or bravado?

The reason being for this that Tendulkar didn't do his usual magic.

Many Sikhs just have attitude of boasting.Yuvraj singh became player of tournament but cricket is team game.Harbhajan singh played below average cricket in entire tournament.One of the key architect of indian victory was Medium fast bowler zaheer Khan.India could have won tournament without any player but not Zaheer khan because he is the only Fast bowler of India which India have no replacement,he single handidly kept all oppositions in control.so even muslims can take claim of Indian victory
 

Ambarsaria

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kds1980 ji no question Zaheer khan was for sure wonderful.

Why are you so against Sikhs even showing a minor sign of accomplishment or some happy news? Nothing personal you are comments for such are generally way more forceful or angry sounding versus what is required of in a situation!

No offense just trying to understand!

Sat Sri Akal.
 

kds1980

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kds1980 ji thanks for correcting me.

You seem very knowledgeable in some of the usage of Singh by non-Sikhs. Do you believe that it goes back to the traditions when as many have stated that Hindus will basically call one of their family a Singh or as a way to thank the historic contribution of the Sikh Gurus and the Sikh faith in helping the then persecuted during Mughal times? Apparently Dhoni's father is Pan Singh (per Wiki) so I don't know when they would have started using Singh or it came into their family tree.

spnadmin ji delete this post if it is off-topic or let me know so.

Sat Sri Akal.
Rajput's were using singh's before the sikh Guru told sikhs to adopt it so I don't think using singh has anything to do with Sikhism.Many communities like jaats and yadavs too have adopted singh because they feel proud to be singh in their name.My brother had a hindu jaat friend ,his father have chaudhary in his name while he has singh because he believe singh is good than chaudhary.So usage of singh have nothing to do with sikhism
 

kds1980

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kds1980 ji no question Zaheer khan was for sure wonderful.

Why are you so against Sikhs even showing a minor sign of accomplishment or some happy news? Nothing personal you are comments for such are generally way more forceful or angry sounding versus what is required of in a situation!

No offense just trying to understand!

Sat Sri Akal.

I am not accomplishment of sikhs but I don't feel these days Sikhs have anything superior above other communities yet whenever there is anything good is done by a sikh then Sikhs just run to take credit of that because the person is a sikh.Let me ask you a question is Manmohan singh instead of being a singh would have been Manmohan Sharma then how many Sikhs would have praised him? I guess none
 

Admin

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Randip ji, i beg to differ with you on this. :singhsippingcoffee:

For me there is absolutely no interesting game than Cricket! It was a fantastic team effort. Nobody in the team overshadowed anybody. What a wonderful victory indeed. A moment to cherish for a lifetime... truly performance of the Champions... cheerleader Wow! IPL just round the corner... :interestedsingh:
 

kds1980

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kds1980 ji, sorry that is too much negativity for me. You obviously don't believe that Sikhs cannot rejoice another Sikhs achievement unless it is as perfect as all the Hindus who never celebrate things unless it is 110% deserved?

I hear this line in Gurdwaras and Parchariks/preachers when they want to put people down and keep them on the defensive so that they can have easy access to people's pockets.

I leave you to your views and approach to happiness and life as a Sikh!peacesign

Whatever happened to Chardhi Kala of a Sikh!peacesign

Sat Sri Akal.

What I am saying is that Sikhs should rejoice acheivements of other sikhs
if they truely believe that it is an acheivement.Yuvraj Singh's performance in this world cup is the matter of joy but saying that only Sikhs or Punjabi's played well is pure exageration
 

Randip Singh

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kds1980 ji thanks for correcting me.

You seem very knowledgeable in some of the usage of Singh by non-Sikhs. Do you believe that it goes back to the traditions when as many have stated that Hindus will basically call one of their family a Singh or as a way to thank the historic contribution of the Sikh Gurus and the Sikh faith in helping the then persecuted during Mughal times? Apparently Dhoni's father is Pan Singh (per Wiki) so I don't know when they would have started using Singh or it came into their family tree.

spnadmin ji delete this post if it is off-topic or let me know so.

Sat Sri Akal.

This is interesting.

I read somewhere that when Sikhs started using the word "Singh" in their name (remember Sikhs were mostly low caste), many so called "low caste" Hindu's like Jats and others became emboldened and started to use the name "Singh" as a middle name.
 

Randip Singh

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Many Sikhs just have attitude of boasting.Yuvraj singh became player of tournament but cricket is team game.Harbhajan singh played below average cricket in entire tournament.One of the key architect of indian victory was Medium fast bowler zaheer Khan.India could have won tournament without any player but not Zaheer khan because he is the only Fast bowler of India which India have no replacement,he single handidly kept all oppositions in control.so even muslims can take claim of Indian victory


I don't think Sikhs are that interested in Cricket. They are more interested in physical sports like wrestling, Kabbadi, and even football. I am sure because Sikhs tend to be so tall and big, they would make great fast bowlers (just like their Pakistani Punjabi cousins) over the border.
 

kds1980

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I don't think Sikhs are that interested in Cricket. They are more interested in physical sports like wrestling, Kabbadi, and even football. I am sure because Sikhs tend to be so tall and big, they would make great fast bowlers (just like their Pakistani Punjabi cousins) over the border.

I am sorry Randip singh ji but this is a thing of past.Cricket is quite popular in Punjab too but there are hardly any new emerging players from their.As far as wrestling are concerned Commonwealth games also shown us that which states are producing them.There was not even a single a medal winning wrestler
from Punjab.Football ,there are very few players from Punjab who plays in domestic clubs ,though I never even heard a UK sikh playing and getting fame for any UK club.Kabaddi is still not recognised sport in any part of world.Non participation and news from Punjab of drug addiction is proving that present generation of Sikhs is not at all good in any sport
 
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