Yuvraj Most Valuable Player:

Mahela in a lone battle:

Dhoni heroics make India World champs

By Chris DHAMBARAGE reporting from India

WORLD CUP CRICKET: Mahela Jayawardena's brilliant hundred was not good enough for Sri Lanka as India lifted the ICC 2011 Cricket World Cup with a six wicket victory in the final worked off at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai yesterday.

Jayawardena's unbeaten 103 was overshadowed by two magnificent knocks from Gautam Gambhir and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni as India overtook Sri Lanka's challenging total of 274 runs with six wickets and ten deliveries to spare. Gambhir who was let off by Nuwan Kulasekera at long off on 30 capitalized on the drop chance and went on to make amends by stroking a sparkling 97 with the help of nine boundaries. He also shared a match winning century stand from 106 balls along with his captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni who remained unbeaten on 91 from 71 balls inclusive of two sixes and eight boundaries that helped him to clinch the Man of the Match award.

The Indian captain who promoted himself in the batting order added the finishing touches by putting on an unfinished 54 runs for the fifth wicket from 42 balls together with Yuvraj Singh who went on to win the coveted Player of the Series award.

India were in a spot of bother at one stage after having lost both openers cheaply. In fact Lasith Malinga removed opener Virender Sehwag in the second ball of the innings and followed up with the prize scalp of Sachin Tendulkar.

Earlier the Lankans electing to bat first after winning the toss posted a competitive 274 runs for 6 wickets from their 50 overs. Vice captain Jayawardena a man for the big occasion came into the limelight in his own style as he dropped anchor to play a responsible innings under tremendous pressure.

He joined a select band of cricketers to have scored a century in a World Cup final racing to an unbeaten 103 from 88 balls inclusive of 13 boundaries.

Jayawardena kept the pressure on the Indians with some intelligent batting while rotating the strike with his partners. He showed great character in his approach to the situation after two quick wickets had fallen mid way in the innings.

India came back into the game somewhat by striking two vital blows while removing Thilan Samaraweera and Chamara Kapugedera in successive overs.

Nuwan Kulasekera joined Jayawardena and the pair put on 66 runs for the sixth wicket from 49 balls. All rounder Thisara Perera joined Jayawardena and the pair added the finishing touches by putting on 26 runs for the unfinished seventh wicket from just two overs as they collected 63 runs from the power play overs.

Sri Lanka the 1996 champions of course got off to a slow start with the openers Tillekeratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga collecting only nine runs from the first five overs. This was mainly due to some excellent seam bowling from left armer Zaheer Khan whose first spell read 5-3-6-1.

However Sri Lanka did well to target Sreesanth from the other end with Dilshan and skipper Kumar Sangakkara deciding to open out after the tenth over. In fact the pair put on 43 runs for the second wicket to snatch the initiative from the opposition.