Sachin Tendulkar said Saturday's World Cup triumph was the proudest moment of his life as India beat Sri Lanka by six wickets to capture the "ultimate" prize after a gap of 28 years. "I couldn't have asked for more," said Tendulkar, as his teammates carried him on their shoulders for a victory lap before adoring fans at the Wankhede Stadium.
"Winning the World Cup is the ultimate thing. It is the proudest moment of my life. It shows it is never too late," he said referring to India's only previous World Cup win in 1983. "I thank my teammates who were fabulous. I could not really hold back my tears. These are happy tears so I don't mind crying." Tendulkar made just 18 with the bat as he missed out on scoring his 100th international century.
Young star Virat Kohli said the victory was a fitting tribute to Tendulkar. "This goes out to all the people of India. Tendulkar has carried the burden of the nation for 21 years. It was time we carried him." Gautam Gambhir, who played a key role with the bat in making 97 off 122 balls, said the win was a gift to his great teammate from the entire squad.
"All credit for this win should go to Tendulkar. We were all playing for him, this trophy is for him." Tendulkar, on his part, thanked each of his team-mates and the support staff including polar explorer Mike Horn. "I would like to thank the support staff especially Mike Horn who joined us at the start of the tournament and was there for our last couple of games. "He worked on the mental side and has helped us deal with the expectations and pressure.
"The team stuck together in the rough phases and proved people wrong who doubted our ability. Self-belief has been always there but in the last two years, we have been very consistent. "It's been great honour to be part of this team. Thanks to (coach) Gary (Kirsten) and Paddy Upton (mental conditioning expert)."
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Scoreboard Sri Lanka
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U. Tharanga c Sehwag b Zaheer 2
T. Dilshan b Harbhajan 33
K. Sangakkara c Dhoni b Yuvraj 48
M. Jaywardene not out 103
T. Samaraweera lbw b Yuvraj 21
C. Kapugedera c Raina b Zaheer 1
N. Kulasekara run out (Dhoni) 32
T. Perera not out 22
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Extras: (bl, lb3, w6, nb2) 12
Total: (6 wkts, 50 overs) 274
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Did not bat: L Malinga, S Randiv, M Muralitharan
Fall of wickets: 1-17 (Tharanga), 2-60 (Dilshan), 3-122 (Sangakkara), 4-179 (Samaraweera), 5-182 (Kapugedera), 6-248 (Kulasekara)
Bowling: Zaheer 10-3-60-2 (1w); Sreesanth 8-0-52-0 (2nb); Patel 9-0-41-0 (1w); Harbhajan 10-0-50-1 (1w); Yuvraj 10-0-49-2; Tendulkar 2-0-12-0 (3w); Kohli 1-0-6-0.
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India
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V. Sehwag lbw b Malinga 0
S. Tendulkar c Sangakkara b Malinga 18
G. Gambhir b Perera 97
V. Kohli c and b Dilshan 35
MS Dhoni not out 91
Yuvraj Singh not out 21
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Extras: (bl, lb6, w8) 15
Total: (4 wkts, 48.2 overs) 277
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Did not bat: S Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, M Patel, S Sreesanth
Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Sehwag), 2-31 (Tendulkar), 3-114 (Kohli), 4-223 (Gambhir)
Bowling: Malinga 9-0-42-2 (2w); Kulasekara 8.2-0-64-0; Perera 9-0-55-1; Randiv 9-0-43-0; Dilshan 5-0-27-1 (1w); Muralitharan 8-0-39-0 (1w)
Result: India won by six wickets
Man-of-the-match: MS Dhoni (IND)
Man-of-the-tournament: Yuvraj Singh (IND)
Toss: Sri Lanka
Umpires: Simon Taufel (AUS) and Aleem Dar (PAK)
TV umpire: Ian Gould (ENG)
Match referee: Jeff Crowe (NZL).
India's path to 2011 World Cup India's path to the 2011 World Cup title after Saturday's six-wicket win over Sri Lanka:
GROUP STAGE February 19 at Dhaka
India 370-4 (Virender Sehwag 175, Virat Kohli 100 not out) v Bangladesh 283-9 (Tamim Iqbal 70, Shakib Al Hasan 55; Munaf Patel 4-48). India won by 87 runs
February 27 at Bangalore
India 338 (Sachin Tendulkar 120, Yuvraj Singh 58, Gautam Gambhir 51; Tim Bresnan 5-48) v England 338-8 (Andrew Strauss 158, Ian Bell 69). Match tied
March 6 at Bangalore
Ireland 207 (William Porterfield 75; Yuvraj Singh 5-31) v India 210-5 (Yuvraj Singh 50 not out). India won by five wickets
March 9 at New Delhi
Netherlands 189 v India 191-5 (Yuvraj Singh 51 not out). India won by five wickets
March 12 at Nagpur
India 296 (Sachin Tendulkar 111, Virender Sehwag 73, Gautam Gambhir 69; Dale Steyn 5-50) v South Africa 300-7 (Jacques Kallis 69, Hashim Amla 61, AB de Villiers 52). South Africa won by three wickets
March 20 at Chennai
India 268 (Yuvraj Singh 113, Virat Kohli 59; Ravi Rampaul 5-51) v West Indies 188 (Devon Smith 81). India won by 80 runs
Quarter-final March 24 at Ahmedabad
Australia 260 for 6 (Ricky Ponting 104, Brad Haddin 53) v India 261 for five (Yuvraj Singh 57 not out, Sachin Tendulkar 53, Gautam Gambhir 50). India won by five wickets
Semi-final March 30 at Mohali
India 260-9 (Sachin Tendulkar 85; Wahab Riaz 5-46) v Pakistan 231 (Misbah-ul-Haq 56, Mohammad Hafeez 43). India won by 29 runs
Final April 2 at Mumbai
Sri Lanka 274-6 (Mahela Jayawardene 103 not out, Kumar Sangakkara 48) v India 277-4 (Gautam Gambhir 97, Mahendra Singh Dhoni 91 not out). India won by six wickets.
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