MS Dhoni walked in at No. 5 during the final of the 2011 ODI World Cup, played against Sri Lanka at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on April 2, 2011, and saw India boost itself to the final by an unbeaten knock of 91 runs from 79 balls. Dhoni, who was then in command of India in the tournament, extended 109 runs for the fourth wicket with Gautam Gambhir, who totaled 97 off 122 balls, and 54 runs for the fifth wicket with Yuvraj Singh, who was not out at 21 off 24 balls. This partnership aided India to chase the target of 275 runs in 48.2 overs, winning the ODI World Cup final by six wickets.
Dhoni’s promotion in the batting order ahead of in-form Yuvraj drew surprise from many fans, but now Dhoni has revealed the reason for him taking that bold decision.
In a recent event, MS Dhoni opened up regarding the decision to come in ahead of Yuvraj in the final, stating that he wanted to do it due to the presence of 3 off-spinners in Sri Lanka’s starting XI, two of whom were his former teammates in the Chennai Super Kings.
“The partnership between Gautam and Virat was very crucial, and Yuvraj was in form. Yuvi was doing really well in that World Cup. So, the difficulty was whether to send Yuvi or go myself… somewhere in my mind, I wanted to go,” Dhoni said.
He spoke on: “For the reason, it was simple; the sheer experience in both these matches. The bowling attack in that series – the guys who were going to bowl in the middle overs. Murli Sir (Muralitharan) was the mainstay, Suraj Randiv was also there, and (Tillakaratne) Dilshan was also there as the part-timers, each one being an off-spinner. So, two of them, Suraj Randiv and Murli Sir, had played for CSK. And then, back to what I played much against them in the nets-the right-handers claim it becomes a bit easy to play against off-spinners.”
Dhoni revealed why he promoted himself up in the order in WC 2011 Final . pic.twitter.com/wjkoagIXGU
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“Yes, Gautam was there, and we have hardly batted together; but at some point, we batted most together while going to India A in Kenya and Zimbabwe, in a one-off tournament while I was up the order. So, we batted together very much; and we ran really well between the wickets at that point in time. And it struck me that since it was a left-right combination and the way I had played Suraj Randiv and Muralitharan, it would be a little easier for me because I was going to be batting for the first two-four overs,” he said.
For his splendid performance while batting in the title decider, Dhoni was named the Player of the Match and hit a six on the very second ball of the 49th over when the team was chasing a target.
