Special end to a special tournament

India's players dedicated the win to legendary batsman Sachin Tendulkar

It was the final the world wanted to see and India and Sri Lanka did not disappoint as the World Cup 2011 drew to a close.

World Cup finals usually turn into anti-climaxes with the tournament ending on a sour note, like the final in the West Indies in 2007.

But this one could not have been better. A brilliant encounter between bat and ball, punctuated with great innings and unbearable tension, led to the end to the tournament everyone craved.

India came out on top, largely due to the excellence of Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni, but Sri Lanka must not be forgotten as they played an unbelievable tournament and great match.

The tournament as a whole showed the value of the 50-over format.

Many people have called for it to be scrapped and for more Twenty20 to be played, but for drama, tension and true prestige, the 50-over game is the king of the limited-overs formats.

Sri Lanka pushed them all the way in the final, but India thoroughly deserved their triumph.

To chase down 275 to win from a position of 31-2, they showed incredible bottle and held their nerve in front of an expectant home crowd in Mumbai.

Losing was not an option as the crowd would not let it be. How they held their nerve under that sort of pressure is anyone's guess, as most teams would crumble in a situation like that.

For most of the tournament, the majority of India's runs had come from the openers, Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar.

But in this innings, both men failed and that would make the win all the more satisfying as the middle order truly showed their class.

Gautam Gambhir was excellent. He deserved a hundred and was extremely unfortunate to be bowled out for 97, after a tremendously well-paced innings. This was the moment he came of age as a big-time cricketer.

He marshalled the innings and calmed India down after the early losses of Sehwag and Tendulkar, and deserves tremendous credit for the way he coped with the situation.

Sachin Tendulkar made just 18 as India got off to a shaky start

Tendulkar's script seemed to be that he would score his 100th international hundred in the final, but that just wasn't to be.

He would have loved to have reached the remarkable milestone in this game, but he would sacrifice any personal accolades for the good of the team.

He is arguably the best batsman of all-time and the Little Master deserved his World Cup medal, the first winners' medal of an illustrious career.

Sachin Tendulkar was carried on the shoulders of his team-mates after the game

He is in the form of his life and England fans must be eagerly anticipating seeing him on English shores this summer when England and India clash in test and one-day series.

It says everything about him that his team-mates took time out from celebrating to dedicate the win to him. They carried him on their shoulders, with Virat Kohli summing it up excellently when he said Sachin had carried India on his shoulders for 21 years, so now it was the time to carry him on theirs.

MS Dhoni's explosive innings finished off Sri Lanka

Captain MS Dhoni was already something of an icon in India, but his 91 not out from just 79 balls to see his side home moved his status into the legendary category.

By his exceptionally high standards, the India captain had had a poor tournament with the bat, but came up big when his country needed him to win the World Cup.

MS Dhoni finished the game with a six

The six he scored to seal the win was the perfect way to end it, and he now has the ability to become one of the legends of the game.

He is still just 29 and entering his prime years, and this innings showed just how world-class he is with a bat in his hand.

Special mention must go to Sri Lanka batsman Mahela Jayawardene, though.

Jayawardene scored his second century of the tournament to keep Sri Lanka in the game

 His magnificent 103 not out from 88 balls put his side right in the game and was one of the best World Cup innings of all-time.


On another day, that could have won the day for Sri Lanka and he was extremely unfortunate to end on the losing side.

A similar sentiment must also be shown to Muttiah Muralitharan, who played his last game of international cricket in the final.

He is perhaps the best bowler of all-time and deserved to go out in a blaze of glory, but again, that was just not meant to be.

His like will not be seen again and it is a shame his international career is at an end.

Sri Lanka decided to drop Ajantha Mendis for the final, which was a very strange decision.

He had been good throughout the competition and deserved a place in the showpiece, and his replacement Suraj Randiv failed to impress.

How much of a difference Mendis would have made is unclear, but he would have worried the Indian batsman and that is why his omission was peculiar.

As for the tournament overall, it was enthralling and got the ending it deserved.

This was India's first World Cup triumph since 1983

The final could not have been better and in a way it summed the tournament up as a whole.
The passion and enthusiasm in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh could not have been matched anywhere else in the world and it was the fans as much as the games which made this tournament so special.

The tournament may still be too long, but the cricket just got better as time went on rather than tailed off as players got tired.

The 50-over format must be saved as the game would be a much poorer place without it.

The 20-over tournament will never have the same prestige and should be viewed as a secondary competition, as the 50-over World Cup is what it is all about.

India were deserving winners and made a country's dream come true.

Now I will run through a few of my highlights of the tournament:

Best player: Yuvraj Singh

Yuvraj was excellent thoughout the tournament with both bat and ball and thoroughly deserved his player of the tournament award. He really come of age in the last month, with four man-of-the-match awards summing up just how central he was to India's triumph.

Best batsman: Sachin Tendulkar / Tillakaratne Dilshan

I just couldn't split these two. They both scored two majestic centuries each and were in imperious form throughout the tournament. Both will have been disappointed with their innings in the final but their tournament as a whole was excellent. They are both geniuses in their own right and enjoying a fantastic end to brilliant careers.

Best bowler: Shahid Afridi

Gone are the days where Afridi was a man who would smack the ball around with the bat and bowl a little bit. He is now a front-line spinner and a very good one at that. His 21 wickets in the tournament paralysed oppostion and leapfrogged Pakistan into serious contention.

Best match: India v England, Group Stage

This game had everything. Superb innings by Sachin Tendulkar and Andrew Strauss, an improbable run chase which almost fell apart and an amazing last-ball decider which resulted in a tie. This was the perfect advert for 50-over cricket and possessed everything that a 20-over game can only dream of.

Best batting performance: Kevin O'Brien, 113 (63 balls), v England, Group Stage

O'Brien made the performance of his life to hand Ireland the shock of the tournament against England. He smashed the ball to all parts as Ireland secured an improbable victory. It was a great moment and truly one of the great World Cup innings of all-time.

Best bowling performance: Shahid Afridi, 5-23, v Canada, Group Stage

It may have come against lowly Canada, but Afridi strangled the opposition in this game. He was unplayable and thoroughly deserved his second five-wicket haul of the tournament. There were some other great bowling displays, such as Kemar Roach and Lasith Malinga's hat-tricks and Wahab Riaz's five-for in the semi-final, but Afridi's was the best all-round performance.

Best ground: Eden Gardens

It's a real shame that only three games were played at this magnificent stadium, South Africa - Ireland,  Ireland - Netherlands and Zimbabwe - Kenya, but it is one of the most iconic venues in world cricket, even world sport. Its flagship game, India v England, was taken away from it on security grounds and it is one of the great travesties of this tournament that the ground did not host any knock-out games.

Most underperforming team: South Africa

The perennial under-achievers, 'chokers' South Africa again failed to live up to their reputation on the big stage. Despite having the best all-round side on paper and being the only team to defeat hosts India, the warning signs were there when they collapsed to lose to England. A similar batting collapse in the quarter-final against New Zealand put pay to their chances as they again lost when it mattered.

Best team: India

Who else but the newly-crowned champions of the world? They were excellent throughout and seemed to get better as the tournament went on, and were worthy winners. Sri Lanka deserve a mention, as do Pakistan and New Zealand who arguably over-achieved, but this was all about India. The firepower of Virender Sehwag and MS Dhoni, grace of Sachin Tendulkar, experience of Zaheer Khan and brilliance of Yuvraj Singh led them to victory and their second World Cup triumph. This is a team which will go down in history and thoroughly deserved to lift the trophy. It was a tournament that will live long in the memory and be remembered for all the right reasons.