Whenever one comes across the career of former India International Gautam Gambhir, the one question which strikes is why he could not complete a hundred in 2011 world cup final against Sri Lanka. Even though captain MS Dhoni won Team India the world cup by hitting a six at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, but Gambhir was the reason why men in blue eked closer to the target. Now eight years later, Gautam told how he missed out on scoring a century in the final against Sri Lanka.
Now eight years after this victory, Gautam Gambhir alleged that he could not complete a century in the World Cup final because of Dhoni.
“I have been asked this question many times, on what happened when I was on 97. I tell every youngster and every person that before getting to 97, I never thought about my own individual score but looked at the target set by Sri Lanka,” said Gambhir in an interview with Lallantop.
“I remember that after the completion of one over, Dhoni told me that ‘three runs are remaining, get these three runs and your hundred would be completed‘,” he added.
He further noted that till he was focussed on chasing down Sri Lanka’s total, but as soon as he was reminded that he was just three runs away from a memorable hundred it was the rush of blood that dismissed him. Its worth mentioning that Gambhir tried to execute a shot over extra cover but was clean bowled by Thisara Perera on 97.
After Gambhir’s dismissal, Dhoni made India the world champion by notching an unbeaten 54-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Yuvraj Singh. The victorious six over long on will always be remembered as the best ever memory in Indian cricket history. Dhoni was adjudged Man of the Match for his unbeaten match-winning innings of 91 runs.
