Former Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar’s famous lap around the Wankhede Stadium after the 2011 World Cup win, titled ‘Carried On the Shoulders Of A Nation’, was voted the greatest Laureus Sporting Moment of the last twenty years.
The lap after the World Cup is still edged into everyone’s hearts. Playing in his last mega 50-over tournament, it was the last chance for Tendulkar to lift the coveted trophy.
“This is a reminder of how powerful sport is and what magic it does to all of our lives.”
A God for a nation. An inspiration worldwide.
And an incredible speech from the Laureus Sporting Moment 2000 – 2020 winner, the great @sachin_rt 🇮🇳#Laureus20 #SportUnitesUs pic.twitter.com/dLrLA1GYQS
— Laureus (@LaureusSport) February 17, 2020
Before the 2011 World Cup, Tendulkar had played five tournaments (1992,1996,1999,2003 and 2007), and he fell short every time. The closest he came to winning the trophy was in 2003 as India made the finals under the leadership of Sourav Ganguly.
But the Men in Blue fell short in the finals against Australia. Then in 2007, the biggest setback was in store for the legend has India bowed out of the tournament in the group stages.
Going into the 2011 tournament, World Cup was held in Asia and India went in as the clear favourites. Under MS Dhoni’s leadership, India lost just one match in the competition against South Africa.
India had defeated arch-rivals Pakistan in the semi-final to set up a summit clash with Sri Lanka.
In the finals, Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bat first. Mahela Jayawardene top-scored for Sri Lanka as he struck a century to take the team’s score to 274/6.
India in their chase got off to a bad start as the side lost Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag with just 31 runs on the board. And lifting the trophy was again looking like a dream for the Master Blaster.
But Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni stepped up and stitched a match-winning 109-run partnership.
Gambhir perished after playing a knock of 97 runs, but in the end, Dhoni and Yuvraj took the team over the line by six wickets.
The winning six struck by Dhoni is still viewed as one of the most exciting moments in India’s sporting history. As soon as the match-winning shot was hit, Tendulkar erupted with joy and had tears to see his dream finally being fulfilled.
46-year-old Tendulkar had made his debut for India at the age of 16 in 1989.
He aggregated 34,357 runs across formats, which is 6,000 runs more than the second-placed former Sri Lanka cricketer Kumar Sangakkara.
Regarded as one of the greatest batsmen ever, Tendulkar holds the record of being the highest run-scorer of all time in international cricket, having notched up 18,426 runs in ODIs and 15,921 runs in Test matches.
He is now a mentor of the Mumbai Indians franchise in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
(With ANI Inputs)