Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led India ended their 28-year-old World Cup drought on April 2, 2011, when the Men In Blue defeated Sri Lanka by six wickets to clinch their second ICC Cricket World Cup at a jam-packed Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.


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India were one of the favourites to win the tournament and this was one of the reason why the pressure on India was huge as they were playing in front of their home crowd. India were also up against history as no home team had managed to win the prestigious title in the past. In 1996, Sri Lanka had won the World Cup in Lahore when the marquee event was co-hosted by India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.


Dhoni and his boys were under huge pressure as India had crashed out of the World Cup 2007 in 2007 and the expectations from the Indian fans were too high in 2011.


India performed brilliantly in the group stages, though, losing just one match. Indian top-order lived up to its reputation in almost all group games. In the quarterfinals, the Men In Blue were up against three-time defending champions Australia.


Batting first, Australia posted a challenging total of 261 runs after Ricky Ponting's 104. India looked in trouble at one stage after they lost their fifth wicket at 187 in the 38th over.


But Yuvraj Singh (57 not out) played one of the finest match-winning innings of this career to take India to the semifinals.


In the semifinals, India were upagainst archrivals Pakistan and Dhoni-led team defeated Pakistan in Mohali to maintain their record of not losing to Pakistan in a World Cup game.


The final at Wankhede was played in front of thousands of people and billions across the world watched the match on TV with a hope that India will create history. 


For Sri Lanka, Mahela Jayawardene (103 not out, 88 balls, 13 fours) hit a classy ton to to help his side post a challenging total of 274/6.


In reply, India lost both their openers, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag early, but Gautam Gambhir (97) and Virat Kohli (35) joined hand to build a crucial partnership.


After Kohli's departure, skipper Dhoni decided to walk in ahead of in-form Yuvraj. At that time India needed 160 runs to win. Dhoni, who had not done much with the bat in World Cup till then, showed his class once again and handled Muttiah Muralitharan and Lasith Malinga, Sri Lanka's main bowlers, quite easily to help India win their first World Cup win since 1983.