It’s been 12 years since India’s historic ICC ODI World Cup win. That spring of 2011 in front of a packed Wankhede crowd, MS Dhoni sent millions into a frenzy with that huge match-winning six as India beat Sri Lanka to claim their first WC trophy in 28 years. On the 12th anniversary, Dhoni, the last Indian captain to lead the team to World Cup glory, recalled that evening in Mumbai and revealed his “best feeling” and guess what, it wasn’t the winning moment.
MS Dhoni said –
“The best feeling was 15-20 minutes (before the winning moment), we didn’t need a lot of runs, the partnership was well-placed, there was a lot of dew.” Dhoni, in conversation with host Sanjana Ganesan, and former Australia batter Mike Hussey, revealed the moment that got him emotional and it was neither that six or the moment he lifted the World Cup.
Dhoni added – “And the stadium started to sing Vande Mataram. That atmosphere I feel is very difficult to recreate – maybe in this [upcoming 2023] World Cup, there is a similar scenario, once the stadium, the fans start contributing. You know, it’s a very difficult (atmosphere) one to replicate. But it can only be replicated if the occasion is similar to that (in 2011) and there are like 40, 50 or 60,000 people who are singing.”
Dhoni further said –
“To me, it was not the winning moment, it was 15-20 minutes ago when emotionally I was very high. And at the same time, I wanted to get done with it. We knew that we will win this from here, and it was very difficult for us to lose. So yes, you know it was more of a sense of satisfaction, job done, let’s move on from here.”
