3 Highest Individual Scores by Indian Batsmen in ODI World Cup Finals
The One Day International World Cup is the biggest tournament in the game of cricket. It is held once every four years and all the major cricket playing nations aspire to win this tournament and be crowned as the World Champions.
Australia has been the most successful team in the history of this tournament. They have been champions on 5 occasions and runners up on 2 other occasions. West Indies and India have been the joint 2nd most successful teams. Both of them have won the tournament twice and finished runners up once.
India won this title for the first time in 1983, and then won it again in 2011. In 2003, they finished runners-up after losing the final against the mighty Australian side.
India have traditionally been a very strong batting side, with some of the greatest ODI batsmen of all time in their batting unit. However, in none of the three World Cup finals in which India played, their star batsmen could score a century.
In this article we take a look at what the three highest scores of the Indian batsmen were, in the 3 World cup finals that they played.
#3 Virender Sehwag : 82 Runs of 81 Balls in the 2003 World Cup Final
After Australia set India a mammoth target of 360 runs to chase in the finals, it required the Indian star batsmen to fire if India wanted to win the World Cup. The 2 biggest star batsmen of the team, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, could not fire and got out cheaply.
However the young and fearless Virender Sehwag, who opened the innings with Sachin, was not ready to give up, without a fight. He played a brilliant counter-attacking innings against the mighty Australian bowling attack and scored a brilliant 82 off just 81 balls. His innings was decorated with 10 boundaries and 3 big sixes.
Although his brilliant knock was not enough to take India past the huge Australian total, it is still date the 3rd highest score by any Indian batsman, in the finals of the World Cup.
#2 Mahendra Singh Dhoni : 91* Runs of 79 Balls in the 2011 World Cup Final
Mahendra Singh Dhoni's unbeaten 91 run match winning innings in the finals of the 2011 World Cup is considered to be one of the best innings in the history of World Cup Cricket. While chasing 275 runs to win, India lost their star openers Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag cheaply in the first seven overs of the chase.
After Virat Kohli's dismissal in the 22nd over, everyone expected Yuvraj Singh to come out at number five. But captain Dhoni promoted himself up the order ahead of Yuvraj and stabilized the Indian innings with an important century partnership with Gautam Gambhir.
Then along with Yuvraj, he took India past the finishing line in the 49th over of the match. In his 91 run innings, Dhoni hit 8 fours and 2 sixes. He perfectly paced his innings according to the requirement of the run chase and never allowed the required run rate to climb up.
Dhoni's moment of glory came when he scored the winning runs by hitting his signature six against Kuwan Kulasekara. This unbeaten 91 run innings of Dhoni is the second highest score by any Indian batsman in the finals of the World Cup.
#1 Gautam Gambhir : 97 Runs of 122 Balls in the 2011 World Cup Final
Gautam Gambhir's match winning 97 runs in the finals of the 2011 World Cup, is still the highest individual score by any Indian batsman in a World Cup Final. Gambhir's innings was instrumental in ensuring India's victory in the finals of the 2011 World Cup.
He came out to bat at number 3, in the very first over, after Virender Sehwag's dismissal. After Tendulkar was dismissed in the seventh over, Gambhir stabilized the Indian innings by launching a recovery act along with Virat Kohli.
After Virat's dismissal, Gambhir and Dhoni built a match-winning century partnership and put India in the driver's seat. As Gambhir was looking set to score a hundred, he suddenly lost his focus and got bowled at 97 by Kulasekara.
However, his innings was enough to set up a platform, from where Dhoni and Yuvraj could finish the successful run chase and hence is considered one of the most important ODI innings in the history of Indian cricket.