World Cup Final – Congratulations India

Well, what the hell do I know? Not a lot, as at the half way stage I thought Sri Lanka had enough runs on the board to win this.

How did MS Dhoni manage his Man of the Match, match winning performance? At one stage when he was around the 40-50 runs mark, he looked out on his feet.

I thought Sri Lanka’s fielding let them down as well, the dropped catch off Gambhir early in his innings was obviously a massive factor in the outcome of the match, but overall their ground fielding was very poor.

If I were a Sri Lankan fan, I’d have been fuming watching them in the field. From about the 38th over onwards, certain members of the team looked like they had already given up. This was a world cup final for god sake, what were they playing at?

But with cricket being cricket, there is always a braindead shot waiting to happen and get you interested again, this time it was Gambhir who supplied it, and within touching distance of a century as well. Just what was he thinking?

What Gambhir’s shot did do, was paved the way for Yuvraj to come out and get his team home, after failing with the bat in the semi-final, it was always a safe bet that Yuvraj would do the business this time.

In seeing his team home, Yuvraj capped off an all round impressive world cup which has seen him confirm himself as one of the top ODI players in the world. His batting, bowling and fielding was all top class. He might not have fulfilled his test potential, but he certainly has excelled in ODI cricket.

From the Sri Lanka side of things questions should have to be answered, like who’s decision was it too leave out Mendis? Especially when you look at the performances of Murali and Kulasekara – who hardly covered himself in glory.

Kulasekara did his best to get India over the line single handed when he offered up a tasty over of full tosses in the 47th over, just after Malinga had built some pressure in the previous one.

Murali was a massive disappointment and to go out on that performance will be a rare low point in his illustrious career.

Dhoni showed just what a real leader he is and did the business when it really mattered. He might not have had a great competition with the bat, but when it mattered Dhoni produced.

To be captain or wicketkeeper must be difficult, to do both at the level Dhoni does is unbelievable. So to criticise him for not scoring enough runs is very harsh.

All-in-all, from my point of view India were the best team over the whole of the competition and fully deserved their win. I thought there was a chance that they had already played their final against Pakistan earlier in the week, but obviously they hadn’t.

Well done India.