Cricket World Cup History: 3 times the host nation won the tournament

#2 2011 - India

India v Sri Lanka - 2011 ICC World Cup Final

The year 2011 holds a special place in every Indian's heart. That six by Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the final against Sri Lanka will be remembered for a long, long time.

The 2011 World Cup was planned to be jointly hosted by India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. But following the attack on the Sri Lankan team in 2009 in Lahore, Pakistan was revoked of their host nation status and the competition was then jointly organized by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

The two host nations, India and Sri Lanka reached the final of the tournament thus making it the first all-Asian final.

The final was played on 2nd April 2011 in the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. The Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara won the toss and decided to bat first. Jayawardene scored a brilliant century and helped Sri Lanka score a total of 274 runs for the loss of 6 wickets after 50 overs. It was India's chance to chase!

The Indian innings started poorly as they lost the wicket of Virender Sehwag on the second ball of the innings. 'The God of Cricket' Sachin Tendulkar came in to bat at No. 3 but it was not his day either as he got out after scoring just 18 runs. The next batsman was the young Virat Kohli and it was Gautam Gambir on the other end. Both of them started the recovery process for India. They managed to get a much-needed 83-run partnership and took India to a total of 114 runs after which Sri Lankans got the wicket of Kohli.

MS Dhoni came into bat at No. 5 and made an impressive partnership of 109 runs with Gautam Gambhir before Gambir got out on 97. The next batsman was Yuvraj Singh, and with 52 required off 52 deliveries, India was in a position where they could not have afforded any more wicket. MS Dhoni continued his brilliance with Yuvi giving him the much-needed support and won the final for India. MSD scored a total of 91 runs not out on just 79 balls and was awarded the Man of the Match.

It was the second time in history and after a gap of 28 long years that India finally got their hands on the World Cup.

Yuvraj Singh was awarded the Man of the Tournament award for his brilliant performances, both with the ball and the bat consistently throughout the tournament.

Tillakaratne Dilshan was the highest run scorer with 500 runs. Shahid Afridi and Zaheer Khan were the joint highest wicket-takers with 21 wickets for each.