‘To me, it wasn’t the winning moment, it was 15-20 minutes ago’: MS Dhoni on his match winning six in the 2011 ICC World Cup final
It has been more than 12 years since India won the 2011 ICC World Cup at home with the then Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni sealing the final win against Sri Lanka with a towering six. It was India’s first World Cup win in 28 years after the 1983 triumph and Dhoni has now revealed an emotionally high moment from the tense final at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
“The best feeling was 15-20 minutes (before the winning moment). We didn’t need a lot of runs, the partnership was well-placed, there was a lot of dew. And the stadium started to sing Vande Mataram. That atmosphere I feel is very difficult to recreate – maybe in this [upcoming 2023] World Cup, there is a similar scenario, once the stadium, the fans start contributing. You know, it’s a very difficult (atmosphere) one to replicate. But it can only be replicated if the occasion is similar to that (in 2011) and there are like 40, 50 or 60,000 people who are singing,” Dhoni said in a conversation with former Australian batsman Mike Hussey in an ICC event commemorating India’s 2011 World Cup win ‘s 12th anniversary in Mumbai on Sunday.
After Sri Lanka posted a total of 274 for 6 in the allotted 50 overs, India were placed 114 for 3 when Dhoni joined Gautam Gambhir in the tense chase. The skipper played an unbeaten knock of 91 runs to guide India home. Dhoni was first involved in a 109-run partnership with Gambhir for the fourth wicket before stitching an unbeaten fifth wicket partnership of 54 runs with Yuvraj Singh. Dhoni talked about the six-hitting moment as not the winning moment for him but the 15-20 minutes prior to the winning six being the winning moment. “To me, it was not the winning moment, it was 15-20 minutes ago when emotionally I was very high. And at the same time, I wanted to get done with it. We knew that we would win this from here, and it was very difficult for us to lose. So yes, you know it was more of a sense of satisfaction, job done, let’s move on from here,” said Dhoni.
The former Indian captain also talked about the 2011 World Cup being one of the biggest in his career. Playing at home, India won its second World Cup trophy under Dhoni’s captaincy. “It never gets bigger than that. What I always firmly believe in is to keep your eyes on the target, as simple as possible. Once you have achieved it, that’s the time when you can enjoy it to the fullest. And the moment you start thinking a lot about why you want to win it, you start focusing more on the result. That’s the time you start mounting undue pressure on yourself,” shared Dhoni.
It was also Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar’s first World Cup win and the title win ended the wait for Tendulkar to win a World Cup. Dhoni also revealed that he thought about Tendulkar’s dream and talked about what was going in their minds about the feat.
“Yes, we all knew that it was paaji’s (Tendulkar) last World Cup and throughout the tournament we had the feeling that we want to do it for him. But at the same time, often you have something going in your mind where you say, God has given him everything. And God keeps one thing away from every individual. Is it that 50-over World Cup that God has decided that he will keep with himself? We said we will try our best, we will make sure that we are giving a 100% when it comes to the cricket matches and we will accept the results. At the end, we were very happy to be on the winning side, but it took a lot from the full team and the support staff.” concluded Dhoni.
