Cricket World Cup 2011: Man of The Match Trophy

Gautam Gambhir is an outstanding member of the Indian Cricket Team. The 30 years old left-handed cricketer is a great batsman. He joined the Indian National Cricket Team in 2003 during the ODIs (One Day Cricket Internationals). He has scored several centuries on the field to his credit against many countries. He always scores above 50 runs in the domestic games and frequently goes on to make easy 100 runs or more. He is the fourth batsman of India to score a double century in a tour game which took place in India, after Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar and Sachin Tendulkar. He holds the international record as the only Indian batsman who scored three centuries and above in four consecutive Test series, and again, the only Indian batsman and one of the four international cricketers who scored 5 centuries in five consecutive Test series. He was ranked number 1 batsman for ten consecutive days by ICC in 2009. In 2011, this year, at the IPL Players Auction, he was the highest paid in the history of cricket. He fetched a bidding of USD 2.4 million from the Kolkata Knight Riders.

Gambhir played a vital role in the latest Cricket World Cup Finals between India and Sri Lanka at a time when India’s team was reeling at the score of 31 for 2 after losing Virender Sehwag at nil and Sachin Tendulkar at 18 runs. When his turn came to bat, Gambhir strode across the field with confidence, and in partnership with Virat Kohli, boldly inched his way to score 97 runs to lift India’s downcast head. This significant boost gave the Indians the much- needed relief and a hope of winning the match. To his great disappointment, he fell short of scoring a century but 97 runs was a score excellent enough to be applauded by every Indian.

The spectacular final sixer by the captain of the team, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, changed the history of Indian and the world cricket. After it defeated Sri Lanka by six wickets, the Indian Cricket Team was declared the winner of the World Cup Tournament 2011, a victory which came to India after twenty eight long years, a victory cherished by every Indian. M. S. Dhoni was awarded the ‘Man of the Match’ even though he made 91 runs; Gautam Gambhir, who made 97 runs under the great pressure of India’s honor at stake, was slighted.

Many who watched the match the world over were disturbed by the ‘Man of the Match’ trophy given only to Dhoni. In their opinion Gautam Gambhir also deserves to be honored as the ‘Man of the Match’ along with Dhoni.  According to them, when only three runs were left for the country to win with 2 overs and 5 wickets still in the offing, making three runs was not a difficult task to accomplish; a sixer by Dhoni was not as significant as the hard-earned 97 runs by Gambhir at a time of crisis of losing the game once again to the Sri Lankans.