April 2, 2011, would be scratched always in the minds of a billion or more Indians after Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s group imitated Kapil Dev’s 1983 group by winning the World Cup. The 1975 and 1979 World Cups indicated why the West Indies were the prevailing group of that period. Also, it was broadly expected that the West Indies would make it a capping stunt of World Cup wins in 1983. All the great players and coaches had marked India as a ‘Dark Horse’ but even so, the odds were in favour of the mighty West Indies.

Conversely, India went into the 2011 World Cup as top picks. Be that as it may, the opposition was firm. As Ian Chappell said before the tournament began, this is the most open World Cup since 1999. Although Australia had marked itself as the number one ODI team and one of the solid competitors to win the title, India was expected to succeed in Australia at the top. In 1983, India was gathered close by Australia, Zimbabwe, and the West Indies. There was an aggregate of six matches to be played by each group, and the best two from the groups would meet all requirements for the semi-finals.

West Indies were determined to score a target of 184. It looked like an easy task when Viv Richards was fleeing with the game. Be that as it may, the Indian bowlers concocted an electrifying struggle to bowl the West Indies out for 140. A four-coordinate undefeated streak saw India succeed in the West Indies as World Cup champions.

Come 2011, and there were more groups in India’s pool with each group playing against one another fair once and the main four from each group going into the quarter-finals. Kapil Dev and MS Dhoni are both masters at keeping their cool. After the scary Malinga took huge wickets of Sehwag and Sachin, it all seemed impossible. Gambhir and young Virat took it to themselves and kept India’s score moving in the match. After Virat gave a silly catch in the hands of Dilshan and Gambhir losing his calm at 97 and getting bowled out, India was once again in trouble. Just like Kapil Dev, Dhoni made a decision to go ahead with more-informed Yuvraj Singh, and the rest is history. There are a lot of similarities and differences between both World Cup wins, yet what is more important is that we are proud of both moments equally.

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