Gautam Gambhir who had been a crucial member of Team India in 2011 World Cup, recently came forward and revealed the reason behind his dismissal in the 42nd over by Thisara Perera with just three runs left to mark a century.
After Virendra Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar’s wicket it had been Gambhir and Dhoni who gave a 109-run partnership before Gambhir’s dismissal at 97.
Gambhir stated during an interview that during the crucial stage where he required just 3 runs to mark a century, it had been Dhoni who reminded him about the triple-figure score that had distracted him and made him conscious that eventually led to his dismissal.
“I have been asked this question many times, on what happened when I was on 97. I tell every youngster and every person that before getting to 97, I never thought about my own individual score but looked at the target set by Sri Lanka,” Gambhir was quoted saying in an interview with Lallantop.
Adding further he said, “I remember that after the completion of one over, Dhoni told me that ‘three runs are remaining, get these three runs and your hundred would be completed’,”
“When your mind suddenly turns to your individual performance, individual score, then somewhere you have a rush of blood. Before that moment, my target was only to chase Sri Lanka’s target. If only that target remained in my mind, maybe, I would have easily scored my hundred,” he said.
“That’s why it’s important to remain in the present… When I was walking back to the dressing room after being dismissed, I said to myself that these three runs would trouble me for the rest of my life and that’s true. Till this day, people ask me why I couldn’t get those three runs,” Gambhir added.
On that day, against Sri Lanka at Wankhede stadium, India needed 52 runs off 52 balls. After Gambhir’s dismissal, Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh took India through with Dhoni remaining unbeaten at 91 while Yuvraj contributed 21 runs to mark India’s second World Cup victory.