“The determination in the team was fierce,” the Indian captain said. “We wanted to do well, we had not done well in the World Cup in the West Indies. We were enjoying the format, not taking any pressure because no one expected us to do well, and we were taking it match by match.

“It is most important to enjoy your cricket. That's what the side did and consequently, we gained a lot of confidence and self-belief. We also enjoyed each others' achivements, not just our own individual feats.”

As for destiny, he observed, "Whatever is destined to happen, will happen. But unless you do the required hard work, you don't succeed. This was not just my destiny, it was the destiny of the whole team!" he added.

Refusing to take credit for leading India to the title, Dhoni went on, “I am not taking the credit. It wasn't just me who made the decisive impact. It was a total team effort, the morale and confidence was excellent. Whatever is required to build a nice unit was there all the time, I didn't need to make any huge decisions. The guys made things very easy for me, the way they responded was exceptional.”

Explaining his rationale behind batting first, Dhoni said, “On paper, our batting is still the stronger suit, but in this competition, our bowling has been much better than our batting, it has been more consistent than our batting. We wanted to take the pressure off the batsmen, especially with the bowlers doing well. Even if you make only 150 or so, if you bowl well and pull off a run out -- like we did in almost every game -- it looks more like 170-180. We were better off in the mind game department.”

Dhoni admitted that playing Pakistan was 'special'. “Of course, this was a special game, it was the biggest stage, the final of the World Cup. But we tried to take it as just another match. That is how most of the boys approached it.”

Pakistan were in the hunt with Misbah-ul-Haq on the charge towards the end. “We knew that they did not have too many wickets. I thought if we got one more wicket at that stage, the pressure of chasing will come into play,” Dhoni noted. “I was banking on the closeness of the contest creating pressure. Our bowlers did really well, and the fielders backed them up.”

And what of Joginder Sharma bowling the last over, with just 13 required? “That was the best option available,” he replied. “I thought if a medium-pacer bower, it would be slightly difficult to hit him. Misbah was timing Harbhajan well, Bhajji was also not too sure if he could get the yorkers right. All I told Joginder was to look to bowl out the six balls in the over. The way he responded was incredible.”