Top 5 ICC Cricket World Cup finals

#3 2011 - India vs Sri Lanka

The final scorecard shows that India won the 2011 World Cup final against Sri Lanka with 6 wickets and 10 balls to spare. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. The final at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, was definitely one of the more intense matches in World Cup history, constantly swinging one way to the other. Sri Lanka, batting first, scored 274 on the back of a Mahela Jayawardene century.

India’s subsequent run chase began on the wrong note as they lost their talismanic openers, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, early on in the innings. It was time for some of India’s other big match players to step up, and they duly did. Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni, eventual man-of-the-match for his knock of 91*, ensured India didn’t panic as they put together a dazzling 109-run partnership for the fifth wicket, not to forget a crucial knock by the young Virat Kohli to support Gambhir after the fall of the two early wickets.

When Gambhir was dismissed for 97 with India still needing 52 runs for victory, however, Sri Lanka would’ve felt they were in with a minor chance of making a comeback. But Dhoni, who was Man-of-the-Match for his knock of 91*, along with eventual Man-of-the-Tournament Yuvraj Singh made sure that wasn’t the case as they led India to their first World Cup win in 28 years.