At the final of the 2011 ODI World Cup between India and Sri Lanka, Wankhede Stadium of Mumbai, the venue for the finale, looked like a sea of blue with Indian fans occupying almost the entire stadium.
Such was the sound of the crowd that the coin had to be tossed twice as the first time, the umpires failed to listen to Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara’s call.
Walking down memory lane with India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin in an Instagram live session, Sangakkara explained what actually happened at the moment.
“It was the crowd, the crowd was huge. It never happens in Sri Lanka. It only happens in India. Once it happened at the Eden Gardens where I could not hear myself talk to the first slip and then of course at the Wankhede. I remember calling on the toss, Mahi wasn’t sure what I had called. He asked, ‘did you call tails?’ and I said ‘no I called heads’. And the match referee said that I won the toss but Mahi said I didn’t. So there was a little bit of confusion there and then Mahi said ‘okay let’s have another toss of the coin’. And that’s when the second one went up and it came down heads again,” said Sangakkara.
Sri Lanka, who were chasing their second World Cup title, made the most of their opportunity while batting first and gave India a stiff target of 275. Mahela Jayawardene scored a brilliant century and struck 13 fours in his innings to score an unbeaten 103 from just 88 balls.
During the chase, fans were left emotionally battered after Lasith Malinga dismissed Tendulkar, leaving India at a precarious 31/2 in the sixth over. However, a heroic innings by Gautam Gambhir (97) along with an exceptional captain’s knock from Dhoni (91*) saved India the blushes and saw the Men in Blue lift the World Cup after 28 years.