ICC cricket World cup final, 2011 was held in Mumbai, India on last Saturday, 2nd of April. The qualified teams were Sri Lanka and India. We all Sri Lankans had high hopes on the World cup. We all thought that the team would bring the cup home. Obviously the Indians thought the same. Anyway just one team could win and that was lucky India.
India performed really good. Bowling and fielding were great. In my view what Sri Lanka missed was the team spirit. There were several reasons for that. First they did a huge change in the team at the last moment (four players were replaced). So it is obvious that they lacked the proper coordination. Then the bowlers didn't succeed. The newly added players Nuwan Kulasekara, Thisara Perera and Suraj Randiv were not much successful in bowling. But it is not their fault. As I believe the fault was to do such a vast change in the team for the finals. They couldn't get enough wickets.We can't put every responsibility on Malinga's and Murali's shoulders. So they couldn't get the job done alone without help from the other bowlers. Next thing was fielding. Simply it was pathetic compared to Indian team. They could have blocked many boundaries, missed an important catch. This could have been a win for Sri Lanka if the fielding was good. At last there was no luck with us. Angelo Mathews got injured and that's why he was replaced. Murali was having a leg injury. So he was not able to do his best and it was a huge loss for the team. All these facts led us to a defeat. Yes it was painful. We didn't lose hope till it comes to last few overs but finally India won by 6 wickets. Sri Lanka lost finals last time (2007) to Australia, but it was not this painful. Maybe it's because we knew that we got defeated that day not because of the team or bad performance, it was rain and bad luck. But this time we could have done better. Things just went wrong.
So this is the 2nd vice championship we won consecutively. It is a great achievement anyway. Apart from that, there were some important and historical moment through out this tournament. The most important thing was Murali's (Sri Lanka) departure from International cricket. Muttiah Muralitharan nicknamed as "King of Spin" is the greatest spinner ever in the planet, and the highest wicket taker in both test and ODI. So Murali said good bye to International cricket after the tournament. Also it was Sachin Tendulkar's(India) last Worldcup tournament. So one great bowler and another great batsman ended their world cup cricket careers together. Scott Styris (Newzealand), one of the cricketers I liked from my childhood, also ended his career with semi finals of this tournament. Well, it happened to end with Murali's last ball in Sri Lanka. After the tournament, Sri Lanka team captain Kumar Sangakkara announced his retirement from captaincy.
Afterall it has been a great and eventful tournament though we lost the championship. I know everyone did suffer. The team, people, everyone did. But they admit it with patience. They dearly welcomed the team home as always and let the team know that they are still their heroes. We saw that how much the disappointed team appreciated their love and humanity. At that moment I realized that there is much more to feel in defeating too......unity, humanity, love and affection. Well, that is Sri Lankan identity. They just lost the cup but they never lose their dignity.
So I am wishing the team a fruitful future, you are really capable of bringing the 2015 cup home. Best of luck. and finally........Hats off to the great nation with patience...no matter what they have the strength to take it humbly. If they lose, they do it in style.... & that's why this nation doesn't lose their dignity !!! Proud to be Sri Lankan !!!
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