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A glorious chapter in cricketing history
An inspired India on Saturday regained the coveted World Cup after 28 years as they suppressed Sri Lanka with a six-wicket victory in a nerve-wrecking final to script a glorious new chapter in their cricketing history.
Chasing 275 for a historic win, the Indians held their nerves as they rode on Gautam Gambhir's 97 and Mahendra Singh Dhoni's unbeaten 91 to overhaul the target with 10 balls to spare and send the cricket-crazy nation into a frenzy.
Here are a few key moments from India's victory over Sri Lanka in the final.
Two coin tosses needed in World Cup final
Toss
The toss caused confusion all around on Saturday and had to be performed twice before the start of the World Cup final.
Nobody, including match referee Jeff Crowe, appeared to hear Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara's call the first time. Sangakkara won the second toss and elected to bat first.
Classic World Cup final ton
Jayawardene ton
The experienced Mahela Jayawardene held the Sri Lankan innings together with a classy unbeaten 103 off just 88 deliveries.
The right-hander was the only Sri Lankan batsman to cross 50 for his team on Saturday and did that with utmost ease and deft touches.
Challenging total
Batting Powerplay
Sri Lankan batting changed gears very quickly during the last five overs of their innings -- the powerplay -- and added 63 runs for the loss off Nuwan Kulasekara's wicket.
The finish took the Sri Lankan total to a challenging 274 for six but in the end it proved to be inadequate.
Crucial innings from Gambhir
Gambhir's Knock
Gautam Gambhir steadied the Indian innings with a solid knock of 97 after they got off to a wobbly start, losing openers Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar in quick succession.
Gambhir missed out on a deserved hundred by just three runs while trying to up the run rate and was bowled by Thisara Perera.
Dhoni comes to party
Dhoni Promotion
Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, struggling for runs during the whole campaign, produced a master-stroke by promoting himself in the batting order ahead of in-form left-hander Yuvraj Singh.
Dhoni's decision was based on the Sri Lankan bowling attack, which included three off-spinners -- Muttiah Muralitharan, Suraj Randiv and Tillakaratne Dilshan -- and the Indian captain wanted to guard Yuvraj against them.
Dhoni remained unbeaten on 91 off 79 balls and blasted a huge six over long-on to take India past Sri Lanka's total.
Spinners were not effective enough
Wicketless Muralitharan
Sri Lanka's attack looked blunt as their main weapon Muttiah Muralitharan, who played his last international match on Saturday, went wicketless in his spell.
The game's highest wicket-taker in both tests and one-day internationals gave away 39 runs from his eight overs which proved a bit too costly for Sri Lanka.
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