A lot had been made of the Indian bowling and its penetration issues. It would only be fair to say that not all of it was away from the mark. And yet, the semi-final against Pakistan was won thanks to the bowling, apart from being able to restrict Australia to 260 and Sri Lanka in the first half of the final.

The middle-order batting showed glimpses of folding up under pressure. In both, the quarter-final and the final, it was this vulnerable middle that led the side to the win.

Then of course, there were Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan; the three on-field architects of the World Cup triumph. Tendulkar made crucial half-centuries in the quarters and the semis to go with his performance in the league stage, but more vital was his becalming presence in the middle and in the dressing room.

Yuvraj, on the other hand, was one who had barely made it to the playing eleven at the start of the tournament after questions over his form. Self-belief was restored with a half-century against England and he went on to win four man-of-the-match awards in the competition. His confidence-soaring can easily be attributed to the way in which he bowled through the tournament – he started off with two games in which he went for runs, before making a comeback in the rest of them.

Zaheer is an understated player in the team at the best of times but the win would have been almost impossible without his presence. 21 wickets catapulted him to the top of the order as he came on whenever the captain demanded to pick up crucial wickets.

The last word should obviously be reserved for the combination of Dhoni and Kirsten. Ganguly and Wright, before them, were chalk and cheese in nature and complemented each other well. The nature of the Dhoni-Kirsten partnership is almost difficult to describe; none make a visible attempt to wear their hearts on their sleeve, both let their deeds do the talking, unlike Ganguly, Dhoni barely shows any emotions on the field but is not averse to criticising his players in the media when required.

And yet, they have forged a partnership which has seen India topple South Africa in the Tests at the top of the rankings and now win this World Cup.

Unfortunately for the Team India, Kirsten will depart the scenes, leaving India at a never-seen before position of being the best ODI and Test team at the same time.