Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai will soon have a small victory memorial in the stands where former India skipper MS Dhoni’s iconic winning six landed during the 2011 World Cup victory. Apex Council Members of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) decided to dedicate a memorial to Dhoni at the MCA Pavilion to commemorate his 2011 World Cup-winning six.
“Today, the MCA Apex Council has decided to make a small victory memorial in Wankhede Stadium stands to commemorate India’s 2011 World Cup win,” MCA president Amol Kale told to sources.
He also said that MCA will approach MS Dhoni, India’s then-skipper in 2011 triumph for the inauguration of the memorial.
MCA hopes that Dhoni will dedicate the memorial while in Mumbai for the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Mumbai Indians on April 8.
The date has yet to be set because it is entirely dependent on MS Dhoni’s consent and availability.
“MCA will also felicitate MS Dhoni when he inaugurates the World Cup Victory Memorial in Wankhede Stadium,” concluded Kale.
On the 12th anniversary of his title triumph, Dhoni recently recalled an emotionally charged moment from the summit clash against Sri Lanka on Sunday.
“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. 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,” Dhoni was quoted as saying by ICC.
“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.
“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,” he added.
India defeated Sri Lanka in the final by six wickets in the summit clash at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. After batting first, Sri Lanka posted 274/6 in their 50 overs. An unbeaten century from Mahela Jayawardene (103*) and knocks from skipper Kumar Sangakkara (48), Nuwan Kulasekara (32) and Thisara Perera (22*) powered Lanka to a competitive total. Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan took two wickets each and Harbhajan Singh took one wicket.
Chasing 275, India lost Sehwag (0) and Tendulkar (18) early. But an 83-run stand between Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli (35) revived India’s chances. Gambhir went on to score 97 in 122 balls and had a 109-run stand for the fourth wicket with skipper MS Dhoni, who ended at an unbeaten 91* off 79 balls. Dhoni and Yuvraj (21*) had an unbeaten 54-run stand for the fifth wicket that guided Team India to their first World Cup title in 28 years.