Former India captain Kapil Dev was the first captain to win the world cup for India and after 28 years, India won the world cup under MS Dhoni in 2011. However, Dhoni took it to himself to prove it by promoting himself to number five and finished the chase with a six. The India wicketkeeper-batter also admitted that he took the pressure in previous games of the 2011 World Cup, which pushed and motivated him to do well in the final.

MS Dhoni made everyone’s dream true in Mumbai after sending the ball flying over long-on off the bowling of Sri Lanka pacer Nuwan Kulasekara. He had a string of poor records at the World Cups, with 34 being his highest as well. But his match-winning 91 not out changed everything as well.

“I took a quite few decisions tonight (April 2, 2011), if we had not won, I would have been asked quite a few questions: Why no Ashwin, Why Sreesanth. Why no Yuvraj, Why did I bat ahead?! That pushed me and motivated to do well,” MS Dhoni said after the 2011 glory. “The pressure had got to me in the previous games. In this game, I wanted to bat up the order and Gary (Kirsten) backed me and by the senior players. I had a point to prove to myself. Virat (Kohli) and Gautam (Gambhir) batted brilliantly; lots of singles. Then with the help of bit of dew , we put pressure on the spinners. I would have liked Gautam to go on and get that big hundred.”

However, Mahela Jayawardene’s 103 not out and Thisara Perera’s cameo of 22* off nine balls helped Sri Lanka to post 274/6 after opting to bat. In reply, India had a poor start, losing Virender Sehwag (two-ball duck) and Sachin Tendulkar (18) early on. Then, Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli rebuilt India’s innings with their important 83-run partnership for the third wicket as well. Tillakaratne Dilshan kept hope for Sri Lanka as he caught and bowled Kohli but Gambhir and Dhoni sealed the deal.