Wankhede Stadium Mumbai: The 2011 World Cup Final and Sachin Tendulkar's Home Ground
The history of Wankhede Stadium — home of the 2011 ICC World Cup Final that India won, Sachin Tendulkar's 100th international century, capacity of 33,108, and its place as the home ground of one of cricket's greatest ever players.
Wankhede Stadium in South Mumbai is one of India's most significant cricket venues — a ground defined not only by its technical attributes but by its role as the stage for two of Indian cricket's most emotional moments: India's 2011 ICC World Cup Final victory and Sachin Tendulkar's 100th international century. Located in the Churchgate area of Mumbai, Wankhede was built in 1974 after a dispute between the Cricket Club of India (Brabourne Stadium, the previous Mumbai Test venue) and the Mumbai Cricket Association led to the construction of a new ground. With a capacity of approximately 33,108, it is smaller than Eden Gardens or Narendra Modi Stadium, but its history makes it one of the most celebrated venues in world cricket.
2 April 2011: The Night India Won the World Cup
The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup Final between India and Sri Lanka, played at Wankhede on 2 April 2011, is the most watched cricket match in history and produced the most iconic finish in World Cup cricket. Sri Lanka posted 274/6, anchored by Mahela Jayawardene's masterful 103*. India's chase began badly: Virender Sehwag was out for zero from the first ball, and Sachin Tendulkar — playing what turned out to be his final World Cup innings in front of his home crowd — was dismissed for 18. At 31/2 with two star batters back in the pavilion, the Wankhede crowd fell into an anxious silence. Gautam Gambhir (97) and MS Dhoni (91*) then constructed a match-winning partnership. Dhoni, who had promoted himself above Yuvraj Singh in the batting order — a decision that drew immediate controversy but was ultimately vindicated — hit Nuwan Kulasekara over long-on for the match-winning six with five balls remaining. The image of Dhoni leaping into the air after that stroke, with the Wankhede crowd erupting around him, became the single most recognised photograph in Indian cricket history.
Sachin Tendulkar's Hundredth Century and Mumbai's Shrine
Sachin Tendulkar was born in Mumbai and played his club cricket at Wankhede from childhood. His relationship with the ground is therefore deeply personal, making it appropriate — if somewhat agonising in the waiting — that he scored his 100th international century at Wankhede. The century came in the Asia Cup against Bangladesh on 16 March 2012 in an ODI match, ending a 15-month wait during which the media coverage of the 'missing' milestone had reached obsessive levels. The century took Tendulkar to 100 international hundreds — a record so far beyond any other player (the next closest is Ricky Ponting with 71) that it will almost certainly never be broken. Wankhede also hosted Tendulkar's farewell Test against the West Indies in November 2013, in which he made the final speech of his career to an emotional capacity crowd. For Mumbai cricket fans, Wankhede is inseparable from Tendulkar's legacy.
Frequently asked questions
Why is the 2011 ICC World Cup Final considered such a defining moment for Indian cricket and Indian culture?
The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup Final was not just a cricket match — it was a catharsis twenty-eight years in the making and a cultural event whose significance extended well beyond sport. India had won the World Cup in 1983 under Kapil Dev's captaincy in a victory that shocked the cricketing world and is widely credited with igniting India's love affair with the one-day format. But in the twenty-eight years that followed, India had repeatedly fallen short in World Cup campaigns despite fielding some of the greatest batters the game had seen: Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, and VVS Laxman among them. Tendulkar in particular had carried the emotional weight of Indian cricket for over two decades, producing extraordinary World Cup performances (he was the tournament's leading scorer in 2003, when India reached the final and lost to Australia) without ever holding the trophy. By 2011, at 37 years old and playing in what was publicly understood to be his final World Cup, the question of whether Tendulkar would ever win the one tournament that had eluded him was one of the most emotionally charged questions in Indian sport. The 2011 campaign was also significant for its context: India were the host nation for the first time since 1987. Every venue was a home ground. Every match was accompanied by the sense that destiny was being written. India progressed through the tournament methodically, beating Pakistan in a semi-final that attracted a television audience estimated at over 700 million — the largest audience ever for a cricket match to that point. The final itself produced arguably the greatest individual performance in a World Cup final: Mahela Jayawardene's 103* for Sri Lanka, batting with a broken partnership and limited support. His innings set a challenging target and should have been the defining memory of the night — but Dhoni's six rewrote the narrative. When the match was won, celebrations across India extended through the night and into the following day. Offices were closed, streets were filled, and the footage of Dhoni's winning stroke played on continuous loop on every television channel. For Sachin Tendulkar, whose contribution to the Final had been only 18 runs, the victory still carried enormous personal significance. His teammates carried him on their shoulders around the Wankhede outfield in an act of collective acknowledgement that the trophy was, in a meaningful sense, for him. He later said in interviews that winning the World Cup in Mumbai, in front of the city that had supported him from age 16, was the fulfilment of his cricket life. The combination of the national catharsis, Tendulkar's personal journey, Dhoni's coolness under pressure, and the Wankhede crowd's electricity made 2 April 2011 the single most emotionally resonant day in Indian cricket history.