April 2 - India v Sri Lanka - The Final!

[angryangy]

SRI made weird decisions however. Regardless of how good India play spin, i couldnt see them being as expensive as medium-pacers Kulasekera & Perera.

Without Mathews I doubt they would have gone in with a tail of Randiv, Herath, Mendis, Murali and Malinga. That's a bit of a Hail Mary play in terms of investing all faith in the bowling attack and top order. At least one of Perera or Kulasekera had to feature. In this instance, both of them were pretty crucial to setting a respectable score. Mathews was such a big blow because he has both the talent and the composure. Perera is explosive, but you probably wouldn't bank on him being cool and calm.

Silva wasn't doing anything much to keep his spot, but the mistake was having Kapugedera in the squad. Sri Lanka have at least 5 or 6 better batsmen.

I could certainly see Mendis being carted by India, after all it has already happened a fair bit. But then Sri Lanka weren't going to drop Malinga or Murali because India could go after them too. It was a bit of a double standard and while it can't be proven that it was the right move to drop Mendis and Herath, it was rather ineffectual.

 

[blazerix]

Its a goner guys. The game has followed the typical pattern of most India-SL grand finals.

No.

 

[jkartik]

No.

hmmm....was that really needed ?

 

[harishankar]

Amazing amazing performance! Truly a special knock by Dhoni and will probably remembered like Kapil Dev's 175 against Zimbabwe in that '83 World Cup.

Now we can finally view TWO MAGIC MOMENTS in the cricketing history of our nation!

Dhoni's special knack of winning trophies continues!!!!!!

Sri Lanka were the only team that looked good enough to stop India but we still triumphed.

 

[Lassana Dias]

Amazing amazing performance! Truly a special knock by Dhoni and will probably remembered like Kapil Dev's 175 against Zimbabwe in that '83 World Cup.

Now we can finally view TWO MAGIC MOMENTS in the cricketing history of our nation!

Dhoni's special knack of winning trophies continues!!!!!!

Sri Lanka were the only team that looked good enough to stop India but we still triumphed.

Very true, as sri lankas we are not as sad as 2007, A we differently lost to a better team, B Cup came home to Asia

 

[harishankar]

Very true, as sri lankas we are not as sad as 2007, A we differently lost to a better team, B Cup came home to Asia

2007 will never be remembered as one of the better tournaments in ICC history. To be honest the format of the league stage in 2007 was flawed and the tournament suffered as a result. Teams could get knocked out playing just 3 matches and that was what happened to India and Pakistan then.

To the present, what is great is that we had a truly competitive final in 2011 and till the last half hour or so the result was not a foregone conclusion as Sri Lanka could have still staged a comeback by picking up a wicket or two.

We cannot ask for better.

 

[jkartik]

i loved the way sanga accepted defeat. shows great character.
the best part was that it wasnt a one-sided affair. went down the wire and both teams put up very good performances.

 

[Lassana Dias]

and the best team won at the end as well, cant beat that , we can learn alot from indian batsman, as sanga said you really needed 350

 

[jkartik]

i actually was expecting malinga to do something in that crucial over.
atleast he could've kept it tight instead of straying on the pads. easy pickings for dhoni. but, its the WC finals..so the pressure does get to you..

heck, even zaheer's final 2 overs is something he would not want to remember.

 

[Lassana Dias]

@Jkartik, my friend to celebrate this win in style, why don’t you release TAOC early

 

[Gurjot95]

First of all what's special of this victory?
Sri Lanka gave a tough total of 274 and everyone thought that SL is going to win and challenged us that to prove if we have Best batting lineup in world and we did exactly that.

We won the match without a special knock from Sehwag or Sachin. Our youngsters did, now that's very special.

Dhoni despite being out of form for whole Tournament performed today, in the big match and promoted himself up in order and proved all his critics wrong.

 

[jkartik]

@Jkartik, my friend to celebrate this win in style, why don’t you release TAOC early

hahaha...i wish i could!
am actually planning to do a Malinga and Murali action as well after experiencing the finals.
even though hes retired, the legend deserves it.

now, lets not go off topic.

 

[Gurjot95]

The quote of Kohli which posted before in this thread is now the quote of the day on Cricinfo. Really those were great lines.

 

[Kabooka]

G'mornin gentlemen. As the lazy Sunday is here, im still shock and awe of us being the new world champions. Honestly it was the best WC final ever!!! SL batted brilliantly in the first innings and after we lost sachin and sehwag early many including myself thought that the cup was lost ...again...but what knocks by our boys and Dhoni. He had not shown us any of the vintage Dhoni tod phod (boom boom) for a long time and in the eyes of many he was slipping as a batsman (including mine). It had been ages since his helicopters took off, but yesterday night when they finally did, they brought the WC home with em. What a fantastic chase under extreme pressure.

Truly champion stuff.

 

[War]

Without Mathews I doubt they would have gone in with a tail of Randiv, Herath, Mendis, Murali and Malinga. That's a bit of a Hail Mary play in terms of investing all faith in the bowling attack and top order. At least one of Perera or Kulasekera had to feature. In this instance, both of them were pretty crucial to setting a respectable score. Mathews was such a big blow because he has both the talent and the composure. Perera is explosive, but you probably wouldn't bank on him being cool and calm.

Silva wasn't doing anything much to keep his spot, but the mistake was having Kapugedera in the squad. Sri Lanka have at least 5 or 6 better batsmen.

I could certainly see Mendis being carted by India, after all it has already happened a fair bit. But then Sri Lanka weren't going to drop Malinga or Murali because India could go after them too. It was a bit of a double standard and while it can't be proven that it was the right move to drop Mendis and Herath, it was rather ineffectual.

Well no i wasn't suggesting they should picked all 4 spinners & Malinga. Just simply replace Matthews with Perera & keep the same spin attack that they where using for the majority of the tournament.

As you said Kulasekera & Perera played key roles in aiding SRI to get 274. Since it can be argued that their combined batting = what Matthews would have done. But having both them weakened the bowling.

Yea sure Mendis & Herath could have been hit, given their past records vs IND. But they still where in form all tournament & if you cant back someone regardless of past record vs an opposition while they are having a good world-cup - then you never will. So that was a severe knee-jerk selection by SRI IMO.

Not sure if Kapugedera was really that bad of a squad selection either. I only know of one (not 5-6) other notable SRI middle-order that could have been in the squad instead of Kapu or C Silva & thats T Kadamby. But im not sure if his performances where up to scratch in recent times to merit a place in the squad either.