Mahendra Singh Dhoni is India’s Captain Cool

Mahendra Singh Dhoni seems like a man who can do no wrong. Win or lose, bad form or purple patch, Mahendra Singh Dhoni is India’s Captain Cool. But it was Greg Chappell, a man whose time as coach of the Indian cricket team now stands largely discredited, who first marked Dhoni out as a potential captain.

skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni smashed an unbeaten 91 off 79 balls as India won the World Cup for the first time since 1983 with a six-wicket victory over Sri Lanka on Saturday.

Sri Lanka, who won the toss and elected to bat in the day-night final, rode on Mahela Jayawardene’s 103 not out off 88 balls to pile up 274-6 in their 50 overs.

Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni guided India to a second Cricket World Cup title on Saturday as his team beat tournament co-hosts Sri Lanka by six wickets in the final in Mumbai.

Dhoni, the world’s highest-paid player, produced his best performance of the six-week-long event when it mattered most as India passed Sri Lanka’s total of 274-6 with 10 balls of the allotted 50 overs to spare.

The 29-year-old smashed the winning runs with a huge six over the boundary ropes to finish the innings unbeaten on 91 off only 79 balls faced.

He set up victory with his fourth-wicket partnership of 109 with Gautam Gambhir, who top-scored with an invaluable 97, after coming to the batting crease at 114-3 in the 22nd over.

Sri Lanka, winners of the tournament in 1996 and runners-up in the last staging four years ago, set a potentially testing target for India thanks to an unbeaten 103 from captain Mahela Jayawardene.

With the victory, India — the top-ranked team in cricket’s five-day Test format — assumed the No. 1 position in the limited-overs game ahead of previous champions Australia.