You must remember that moment in the 2011 World Cup final match when the India team lost their third wicket by 114 runs chasing the target of 275 runs. Virat Kohli was returning to the pavilion after leading for 35 and from the other side instead of Yuvraj Singh, captain MS Dhoni himself was heading towards the pitch with the bat.
Everyone was surprised by Dhoni’s sudden change in the batting order. However, this decision by Dhoni turned out to be a turnaround in the fortunes of the India team and he played an unbeaten innings of 91 runs and gave India the World Cup trophy after 28 years. Now Yuvraj Singh has told the whole story about the change in the batting order of Team India in this final match of the 2011 World Cup.
Yuvraj said in a conversation with a sports channel: ‘Mahi’s decision to go batting before me in the 2011 World Cup was a team decision. When Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli were leading the India team innings at the crease, there was a conversation in the locker room. After discussions between Viru, Sachin, Gary Kistern and Mahi, it was decided that a left-right combination would be needed in the middle, as there would be two Sri Lankan bowlers bowling at the time. So it was decided that if Virat goes out, then Mahi will go down to the fifth order and if Gambhir’s wicket falls, I will be the next batsman.
In this game, while batting fifth order, Dhoni played a wonderful inning of 91 runs on 79 balls. He had also achieved a victory by six for India. Dhoni was declared the ‘Man of the Match’ for this strong tackle. At the same time, Yuvraj Singh was the ‘Player of the Tournament’.
In the final match of the 2011 World Cup, Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat first. Sri Lanka set India a target of 275, thanks to Mahela Jayawardene’s century and small innings from Dilshan and Sangakkara. In response, India lost the wickets of Sehwag and Sachin in a total of 31 runs. From here, an 83-run partnership between Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli and then a 109-run partnership between Gambhir and Dhoni brought India closer to victory. In the latter, Dhoni and Yuvraj made an unbeaten pairing of 54 runs to win this match for India.