Mumbai : The tenth edition of cricket's biggest show was again returned to Indian sub-continent with India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as hosts for the 2011 event. But that was not to be as during the Sri Lankan tour to Pakistan in 2009 bombs were hurled into the Sri Lankan team bus leaving a narrow escape for the players. That incident was rightly condemned by not only by the entire cricketing fraternity but from all quarters. Because of this incident, International Cricket Council (ICC) has stripped Pakistan's right of hosting 2011 cup matches. One semi final was scheduled to be hosted by Pakistan along with other matches.
That's not all as more controversies were in store. ICC , all of a sudden found Eden Gardens "unsuitable" to host cup matches and moved the India vs England match from Calcutta to Bengaluru. that incident too created a furore.
Controversies apart, 14 teams were split into 2 pools with 7 teams in each pool . Each team were to play other teams in the round robin league format with the top four on each pools advancing to the quarter finals --- just like 1996 cup. Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Canada were placed in Pool A while Pool B consists of India, Bangladesh, West Indies, Ireland, South Africa, England and Holland (the Netherlands)
The tournament started with the clash between the co-hosts India and Bangladesh. It was Bangladesh who paved the way for India's exit in 2007 World Cup and now India extracted a sweet revenge by trouncing them convincingly by 87 runs. Courtesy Virendra Sehwag's fluent 175(140) and Virat Kohli's unbeaten 100(83) . A 4 wicket haul by Munaf Patel further bolstered India's success. England had a weird campaign in this world cup. They beat West Indies, South Africa, tied with India in a thriller at Bangalore but lost to Ireland and Bangladesh in the group stage.
Australia last lost a World Cup match on May 23, 1999 against Pakistan at Headinley and it was Pakistan again who broke Australian winning jinx by outclassing them at Colombo in the group stage on March 19.
The upsets came in the matches against Bangladesh and Ireland by England. In the match between Bangladesh vs England, chasing 226, Bangladesh slumped to 8/169 and then a miraculous 9th wicket unbeaten partnership of 57 between Mahmuddullah 21(42) and Shafiul Islam 24(24) snatched the match from England.
England vs Ireland had more surprise in store. Electing to bat, England put up 8/327. Chasing 328, Ireland were tottering at 5/111, then a 162 runs 6th wicket partnership between Kevin O' Brian 113(63) and Alex Cusack 47(63) turned the match towards Ireland's favour. Ireland chased down the total to create a new world cup record for the highest chase.
Read : World Cup that saw a tragic death
As expected, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Australia & New Zealand qualified for the quarter finals from Pool A where as India, South Africa, West Indies & England qualified from Pool B
It was Pakistan vs West Indies , Sri Lanka vs England, Australia vs India & New Zealand vs South Africa in the quarter finals.
In the quarter finals, it was a cakewalk for Pakistan in the quarter finals. Electing to bat, the Caribbeans were bundled out for just 112. Shivnarine Chanderpaul 44*(106) offered some resistance. Chasing 113 was an easy task for the men in green as they had done it within 20.3 overs without losing any wickets.
England, who demonstrated fine cricket particularly against the main cricket playing nations, had it otherwise against the Sri Lankans. Electing to bat, England put up 6/229 with 50s from Jonathan Trott 86(115) and Eoin Morgan 50(55). Excellent disciplined bowling by the Sri Lankans coupled with superb captaincy from Kumara Sangakkara restricted England to such a modest total. Chasing 230, Lankan openers Tillekaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga each scored centuries to give the hosts an easy win.
In Ahmedabad, Australia won the toss and elected to bat. Ton by skipper Ricky Ponting (104 of 118 balls) and a fine 53(62) by Brad Haddin accompanied by quick innings by David Hussey 38(26) in the end propelled the Kangaroos to 6/260, chasing 261, India didn't lose nerve even for a moment and every batsmen contributed 53(68) by Sachin Tendulkar, 50(64) by Gautam Gambhir, 57*(65) by Yuvraj Singh and a quick 34*(28) by Suresh Raina removed the world championship crown from the Australians.
Proteas continues to be a "Chocker" when it matters the most, Electing to bat New Zealand put up 8/221 in their allotted 50 overs courtesy a fine 83(121) by Jessie Ryder, 43(72) by Ross Taylor and 38(41) by Kane Williamson. Chasing 222, South Africa were 3/121, just 100 more to get with 7 wickets still remaining. There the mishap happened for the Proteas. They kept losing wickets at regular intervals and finally bowled out to 172. Jacob Oram (4/39) ripped through the Proteas' innings to hand Kiwis a fine win .
Thus it was New Zealand vs Sri Lanka in the first semi finals on the other hand, it was the clash of the arch-rivals India vs Pakistan in the other semis.
Sri lanka maintained their discipline in their bowling and fielding in the semis and bowled the Kiwis out for 217. The notable batsmen in the Kiwi innings were Scott Styris 57(77), Martin Guptill 39(66) and Ross Taylor 36(55). Chasing 218, Sri Lanka were 1/161 at one stage and soon the score became 5/185. A sensible batting by Thilan Samaraweera 23(38) and Angelo Matthews 14(18) prevented any more mishaps and saw the islanders home. Kiwis, waged a terrible fightback.
All eyes were, however, at Mohali where India took on Pakistan. Electing to bat, India put up 9/260 with a fine 85(115) by Sachin Tendulkar. It may be mentioned here that luck was on Tendulkar's side as he got 6 lifelines. 5 catches were dropped by the Pakistan fielders who displayed a sloppy show. and a contoversial LBW that the video replay overturned the field umpire's decision and ruled Not Out of the bowling of Saeed Ajmal. Chasing 261, Pakistan were not really in the hunt and kept losing wickets at regular intervals before being bowled out for 231.
Thus it was Sri Lanka vs India in the championship match at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai. It was the only instance when 2 Asian teams clashed in the Grand Finale of a ODI cricket world cup.
Controversy erupted again in the Grand Finale as well. That too before a bowl is bowled. The toss had to be conducted twice as the match referee didn't hear the call due to heavy noise from the crowds Electing to bat after winning the toss, Sri Lanka put up 6/274 with a gritty ton by seasoned campaigner Mahela Jayawardene 104(88). Chasing 275, India were in a bit trouble at 2/31 with both the openers Virendra Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar back to the dressing room. Then a 83 runs partnership between Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli 35(49) stedied the Indian innings. After the dismissal of Virat Kohli, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni took a bold decision. Although MSD was in a poor form right through the tournament, he himself arrived on the 22 yards instead of in form Yuvraj Singh. MSD along with Gautam Gambhir 97(122) put up 109 runs partnership that changed the complexion of the match. MSD remained unbeaten on 91(79) and finished the match with a 6 by his trademark helicopter shot. India won by 6 wickets to clinch the ODI world cup for the 2nd time after 1983 edition.
Mahela Jayawardene became the only player to score a ton and standing on the losing side in the Grand Finale.
Top individual run scorer : Tillekeratne Dilshan of Sri Lanka with 500 runs
Top individual wicket taker : Shahid Afridi of Pakistan with 21 wickets.
Highest team total : 4/370 by India vs Bangladesh
Lowest team total : 58 by Bangladesh vs West Indies
Match of the tournament :
England vs Republic of Ireland in the group stage.
Dramatis Personae :
- Australia : Ricky Ponting (c), Doug Bollinger, Michael Clarke (vc), Callum Ferguson, Brad Haddin (wk), John Hastings, David Hussey, Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Jason Krejza, Brett Lee, Tim Paine (wk), Steve Smith, Shaun Tait, Shane Watson and Cameron White
- Canada : Ashish Bagai (c), Rizwan Cheema (vc), Harvir Baidwan, Balaji Rao, John Davison, Parth Desai, Tyson Gordon, Ruvindu Gunasekera, Jimmy Hansra, Khurram Chohan, Nitish Kumar, Henry Osinde, Hiral Patel, Zubin Surkari, Karl Whatham and Hamza Tariq (wk)
- Kenya : Jimmy Kamande (c), Maurice Ouma (wk), Tanmay Mishra, James Ngoche, Alex Obanda, Collins Obuya, David Obuya (wk), Nehemiah Odhiambo, Thomas Odoyo, Peter Ongondo, Elijah Otieno, Rakep Patel, Steve Tikolo, Seren Waters and Shem Ngoche
- New Zealand : Daniel Vettori (c), Brendon McCullum (wk), Hamish Bennett, James Franklin, Martin Guptill, Jamie How, Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, Jacob Oram, Jesse Ryder, Tim Southee, Scott Styris, Ross Taylor, Kane Williamson and Luke Woodcock
- Pakistan : Shahid Afridi(c), Misbah-ul-Haq (vc), Kamran Akmal (wk), Abdul Razzaq, Abdur Rehman, Ahmed Shehzad, Asad Shafiq, Mohammad Hafeez, Saeed Ajmal, Shoaib Akhtar, Junaid Khan, Umar Akmal, Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz and Younis Khan
- Sri Lanka : Kumar Sangakkara (wk) (c), Mahela Jayawardene, Tillakaratne Dilshan (vc), Dilhara Fernando, Rangana Herath, Chamara Kapugedera, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Ajantha Mendis, Muttiah Muralitharan, Thisara Perera, Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Silva and Upul Tharanga
- Zimbabwe : Elton Chigumbura (c), Regis Chakabva, Charles Coventry (wk), Graeme Cremer, Craig Ervine, Terry Duffin, Greg Lamb, Shingirai Masakadza, Chris Mpofu, Ray Price, Tinashe Panyangara, Tatenda Taibu (wk), Brendan Taylor (wk), Prosper Utseya and Vusi Sibanda
- Bangladesh : Shakib Al Hasan (c), Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Tamim Iqbal (vc), Imrul Kayes, Junaid Siddique, Shahriar Nafees, Mohammad Ashraful, Raqibul Hasan, Mahmudullah, Naeem Islam, Shafiul Islam, Rubel Hossain, Abdur Razzak , Suhrawadi Shuvo and Nazmul Hossain
- England : Andrew Strauss (c), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Jade Dernbach, Eoin Morgan, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior (wk), Ajmal Shahzad, Graeme Swann, James Tredwell, Chris Tremlett, Jonathan Trott, Luke Wright and Michael Yardy
- India : Mahendra Singh Dhoni (C & wk) , Virender Sehwag (vc) , Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Yusuf Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel, S. Sreesanth, Piyush Chawla and Ravichandran Ashwin
- Republic of Ireland : William Porterfield (c), Gary Wilson (wk), Andre Botha, Alex Cusack, George Dockrell, Trent Johnston, Nigel Jones, Ed Joyce,
John Mooney, Kevin O'Brien, Niall O'Brien (wk), Boyd Rankin, Paul Stirling, Albert van der Merwe and Andrew White - Netherlands (Holland) : Peter Borren (c), Adeel Raja, Wesley Barresi (wk), Mudassar Bukhari, Atse Buurman (wk), Tom Cooper, Tom de Grooth, Alexei Kervezee, Bradley Kruger, Bernard Loots, Pieter Seelaar, Eric Szwarczynski, Ryan ten Doeschate, Berend Westdijk and Bas Zuiderent
- South Africa : Graeme Smith (c), AB de Villiers (wk) , Hashim Amla, Johan Botha, JP Duminy, Francois du Plessis, Colin Ingram, Jacques Kallis, Morné Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Dale Steyn, Imran Tahir, Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Morne van Wyk (wk)
- West Indies : Darren Sammy (c), Devon Thomas (wk), Kirk Edwards, Sulieman Benn, Devendra Bishoo, Darren Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Chris Gayle, Nikita Miller, Kieron Pollard, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Andre Russell, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Devon Smith
