5. World Cup final, 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djtjb9OYfFU

The most brilliant and high-intensity match is at the last. This match was the final of the World Cup in 2011 and Mumbai hosted both Sri Lanka and India for this high voltage clash.

Kumar Sangakkara won the toss and elected to bat first on a very unpredictable looking Mumbai pitch. Tharanga went back for 6 and Dilshan was bowled by Harbhajan for 33. However, the two old veterans of Sri Lankan cricket, Sangakkara (48) and Jayawardene, who scored a memorable 103* supported Sri Lanka.

Later on, Kulasekara (32) and Perera (22 in 9 balls) helped Sri Lanka to go past the 270 mark. This was possibly the greatest Jayawardene innings ever in ODIs, as it came in a World Cup final.

India received a big shock when Malinga dismissed Virender Sehwag cheaply on the 2nd ball of the innings and then sent back Tendulkar for 18 runs and dampened the Wankhede Stadium into silence.

Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli (35) added 83 runs for the 3rd wicket. MS Dhoni moved up the order, in front of the inevitable player of the tournament Yuvraj Singh at no.5 and made history. Dhoni and Gambhir, who got bowled on 97, put on the match-winning partnership of 109 runs and slowly turned the game into India’s favor.

Then Yuvraj (21*) and Dhoni (91*) helped the men in blue to reach the victory. The win came in the 49th over, as Dhoni smacked Kulasekara into the long on crowd for a World Cup winning six and held the pose for the cameramen, as the whole stadium went insane around him.

Sri Lanka lost their second World Cup final in a row and Kumar Sangakkara accepted defeat with a smile, as Sachin Tendulkar and the whole Indian team ran onto the ground and hugged Dhoni and Yuvraj, who was later diagnosed with cancer and admitted that he played the tournament with that illness.

India became the World Champions for the second time after 28 years and MS Dhoni said that they did it for the guy who had served India with full pride and duty- Sachin Tendulkar.