Saturday's stupendous feat in the World Cup final made Mahendra Singh Dhoni India's most successful captain in limited-overs cricket, having won both the World Twenty20 and the World Cup for the cricket-mad country. So, hardly could he hide his emotion. Usually self-reliant, the Indian skipper was as delighted as he could be though he laughed nervously at times at a post-match briefing in the underground media conference room of the Wankhede Stadium. Most of his answers were either long or like skipping the question with a joke, and his motto was: Enjoy the night first.

Putting aside all his rivalry with the media, the strong man along with man-of-the-tournament Yuvraj Singh, who climbed onto the dais by calling out loudly to the journalists: "badhaiyaan ho, badhaiyaan ho (congratulations, congratulations!" > arrived at the conference room waving hands; definitely a unique scene for the Indian media who has a bittersweet relationship with their team. And during the nearly half-an-hour session, the two traded jokes to share the joy with everybody, but the Indian skipper was articulate when he was pointing out that success did not come overnight, rather it was the result of a well thought out long-term plan.

"There had been a plan which was born about 18 months ago and it was a result of methodically resting and rotating players, so that we could get our best players fresh. We wanted to win the World Cup for each other first," said Dhoni.

He also added that they were able to keep the dream live in the team and tried to win the trophy first for the team because they were well aware of the fact that everybody will have their share if they achieve their target. "Rather than trying to expand the number of people for whom the World Cup could be won, the team thought 'okay let's concentrate and keep it small. If you do well and win the World Cup, the whole country will have a share in it'."

Dhoni described the strains his team had been going through during the six-week World Cup and said his boys were now relaxed after the mission had been accomplishment.

“The pressure we felt throughout the tournament was huge. If you ask the players, they were not eating well because of anxiety. It's not actually pressure, but anxiety. There would be food in front of you but you wouldn't feel like eating it.. .just think that."

He praised his teammates for successfully dealing with the pressure throughout the tournament, which began with an 87-run victory against Bangladesh at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on February 19.

"We said: avoid it, do this, do that but the strain was always felt. However, everyone in the squad had eventually coped well. The kind of extra responsibility that each and every member of the squad undertook was enormous. This is what we wanted to achieve; we had set our eyes on it one-and-a-half years ago."

When asked to explain what actually was the key behind his success, Dhoni laughed and said: "I'm lucky. I always get good players. The players have responded to me even if it's a Test side, where there were senior players who have been part of the side even before 1 started playing for India. Then, the youngsters coming in, have contributed a lot, they have been willing to give more than hundred per cent. It's the characters of the individuals of the team that helped us win this trophy," observed a confident World Cup-winning skipper.

After whacking the winning six, the wicketkeeper batsman found himself at the middle of the pitch with Yuvraj at the other end and then he ran over to his own end to pull out the stump and after that Yuvraj jumped on him and pulling him into a bear hug and the question was asked of what actually was going through his mind.

He spoke simply: "Emotionally, I was confused; I wanted a wicket [stumpl". I thought hug-vug we will do later, first pick the wicket. It was an emotional moment. I was confused, I didn't know what to do at the time, how to show my emotions.”