March 20, 2011: When an unfit Yuvraj Singh fought the odds to score a crucial World Cup century against West Indies

After 28 years, in 2011, team India won the ICC Cricket World Cup for the second time. Under the leadership of one of India’s best captains, MS Dhoni, the Men In Blue, became the first team to win the tournament on their home soil. Everyone remembers MS Dhoni’s six that won team India the final at the Wankhede. But, there were other men like Yuvraj Singh, who went on to become the Man of the Series, without whom, the win would still have been a dream.

Yuvraj, who had scored 362 runs in 9 matches in the tournament, and had scalped 15 wickets, had some of the toughest phases of his life after the win. He was diagnosed with cancer, the signs of which, could be seen during the tournament itself. But no one knew, that this warrior was fighting two battles at the same time, one with his health and the other, with the opponents, whom he had to crush in order to get team India over the line.

The first time in the tournament when the general populous got to know about Yuvraj’s deteriorating health was on the 20th of March 2011, during a match against the West Indies. Yuvraj, who had come in to bat at number 4 for the team, led the batting attack along with Virat Kohli and smacked a century.

But en route to his score of 113 runs, the southpaw had vomited several times on the pitch itself and looked pretty sick, but little did anyone knew that he was suffering from a deadly disease.

Yuvraj Singh had shone with the ball as well

After propelling India’s score to 268 runs, he also contributed with the ball, and took two wickets for 18 runs, in his quota of 4 overs and led the team to a win. For his performance, he was adjudged the Man of the Match award. The flamboyant left-hander continued his performance, hiding from everyone his deteriorating health. Yuvraj fought from the illness and made a comeback into the Indian team.

After he recovered from cancer, he went on record to reiterate the fact that all through the time he was suffering from illness, he wanted to play and win India the World Cup, after which, he would not have regretted even dying. “I first thought it was because of the Chennai heat. I always wanted a World Cup hundred, which never happened because I had batted at 6.

“But Viru opted out of the World Cup, so I decided to make it big. I prayed to God that whatever happens, even if I die afterwards, let India win the World Cup,” Yuvraj was quoted saying by AajTak in an interview in 2014.