After playing a major role in India's World Cup title triumph, a feat that fetched him the man of the tournament award, swashbuckling batsman Yuvraj Singh revealed that he wanted to win cricket's most coveted title for senior teammate Sachin Tendulkar.
"(This is) for Sachin, for everyone else in the team. I want to dedicate this to my Guru Ram Singh and Guru Ajit Singh and my parents and friends," he said.
"We played like champions and we deserve to win. We batted like champions and we saved lots of runs at the field," he said after being handed the Player of the Tournament award by ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat.
"We don't have a proper left-arm spinner and so it was my job to bowl 10 overs. Narendra Hirwani has been helping me and I have been working hard. I have done well and for that I am winning this trophy.
"Tonight is going to be a good night. I don't want to disclose what we are going to do. But thankyou India." he said.
Singh thanked former India captain Sourav Ganguly and Dhoni for keeping faith in him when he was going through tough times.
India have such a formidable batting line-up that even a total of 300 would not have been enough to defend, said Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara after his team was outplayed in the World Cup final by the hosts.
"When you have such an awesome batting line-up, even 300 is not enough," Sangakkara said after Sri Lanka lost the World Cup final to India by six wickets last night at the Wankhede Stadium.
On the field the 1996 World Cup winners were not as agile as they had been in the tournament.
"We have not been the best fielding part today. People do miss catches but you have to take close ones. (But) Gambhir and MS batted well," said the skipper.
Sangakkara said that it was a combination of factors that took India to the pinnacle.
The Indian captain, however, sprang a surprise by preferring the erratic and hot headed pace bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth ahead of off-spinner Ashwin and he then promoted himself to number four, ahead of the in-form Yuvraj Singh.
The gamble paid off as he went on to hit a match-winning 91 not out to script India's six-wicket victory against Sri Lanka.
"I took a quite few decisions tonight, if we hadn't won I would have been asked quite a few questions -- why no Ashwin and why Sreesanth. Why no Yuvraj and why did I bat ahead of him?" he said pre-empting the questions.
"That pushed me and motivated me to do well. The pressure had got to me in the previous games. In this game, I wanted to bat up the order and (coach) Gary (Kirsten) backed me and also the senior players. I had a point to prove to myself."
