All of us who are born after 1983 or were too young to remember anything of that period, have only heard stories from our elders about India’s remarkable World Cup victory in that year or at the most, have seen footages of the final between India and West Indies.

Although by listening to the stories and watching the highlights years back, we were able to imagine the triumphant feeling that the country must have experienced back then but we were devoid of the actual feeling of the live moment when the country achieves the feat of lifting the World Cup.

Come April 2, 2011 and we were able to have a firsthand experience of what it actually means to rule the world when Mahendra Singh Dhoni hit Nuvan Kulsekara for a six over his head. I jumped out of my chair like I have never jumped before ever (Thank God for my height else my head would have hit the fan!). And that’s not all. I even clapped on the table few times. The scene gave a jolt to my family as I have always been someone who controls his reactions, but who the hell cares? We have the cup that counts! I am sure even others, like me, will have fond memories of what they did when the six was hit.

The final victory, twists and the important happenings of the match, players’ performances, tension when India lost two openers and the rest of the matches of the series are going to be a part of our discussion for the rest of our lives. The visuals of our team celebrating after the victory, Sachin being lifted on the players’ shoulders and the celebrations across our countries are going to remain permanently in our eyes forever. Unintentionally, we might even by-heart the scorecard of the final (see below).

In the future, no matter how many important events happen with us or how much we achieve in our lives, many years later if we ever decide to write the summary of our lives, India’s 2011 World Cup victory will be an important part of it.

 

Scoreboard of the ICC World Cup 2011 Final: –

 Sri Lanka innings
 U. Tharanga  c Sehwag b Khan            2
 T. Dilshan  b Harbhajan Singh          33
 K. Sangakkara  c Dhoni b Yuvraj Singh  48
 M. Jayawardene  not out               103
 T. Samaraweera  lbw b Yuvraj Singh     21
 C. Kapugedera  c Raina b Khan           1
 N. Kulasekara   run out                32
 T. Perera  not out                     22
 Extras (b 1 lb 3 w 6 nb 2)             12
 Total (for six wickets; 50 overs)     274

 Fall of wickets: 1-17 2-60 3-122 4-179 5-182 6-248

 Did not bat: L. Malinga, S. Randiv, M. Muralitharan 

 Bowling: Z. Khan 10-3-60-2 (1w), S Sreesanth 8-0-52-0 (2nb),
M. Patel 9-0-41-0 (1w), Harbhajan Singh 10-0-50-1 (1w), Yuvraj
Singh 10-0-49-2,  S. Tendulkar 2-0-12-0 (3w), V. Kohli 1-0-6-0

 India innings
 V. Sehwag lbw b Malinga                  0
 S. Tendulkar c Sangakkara b Malinga     18
 G. Gambhir b Perera                     97
 V. Kohli c & b Dilshan                  35
 MS Dhoni not out                        91
 Yuvraj Singh not out                    21
 Extras: (b-1, lb-6, w-8)                15
 Total: (for four wickets, 48.2 overs)  277

 Fall of wickets: 1-0 2-31 3-114 4-223

 Did not bat: S. Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, S.
Sreesanth, M. Patel.

 Bowling: Malinga 9-0-42-2 (2w), Kulasekara 8.2-0-64-0,
Perera 9-0-55-1 (2w), Randiv 9-0-43-0, Dilshan 5-0-27-1 (1w),
Muralitharan 8-0-39-0 (1w)