Mahendra Singh Dhoni: The man’s incredible records

The man never stops surprising us. Just like Sachin Tendulkar has taken the entire discipline of batting in international cricket to a different level (the quantitative difference between the pre- and post-Tendulkar eras in international cricket is like that between chalk and cheese), Mahendra Singh Dhoni has added a new dimension when it comes to records in captaincy and wicket-keeping. Just like his former colleague, the swashbuckling cricketer from Ranchi has hardly finished second-best in things that he has done on the cricket field.

There is no dearth of records in the statistician’s diary related to Dhoni but that doesn’t stop him from raising the bar each time. The man crossed 9,000 runs in one-day internationals (ODIs) during his knock of 80 against New Zealand at Mohali the other night. He did it as the fifth Indian batsman but only the third as a wicketkeeper after Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara (14,234) and Australia’s Adam Gilchrist (9,619).

The feat again makes it an occasion to bring the focus back on MSD’s remarkable records in the ODI format – be it as a batsman or a wicketkeeper.

What was so special about Dhoni’s 9,000 ODI runs:

➜ He is the quickest of the three wicketkeepers to complete 9,000 runs. While Dhoni, known to be an clinical finisher of the game, took only 244 innings to do it, Sangakkara had taken 252 while Gilchrist had taken 262 innings, respectively. He is the sixth quickest to reach the milestone.

➜ Dhoni is the first right-handed wicketkeeper-batsman to complete 9,000 runs.

➜ Dhoni is the 17^th batsman in the history of ODIs to complete 9,000 runs but he is the first to do it with an average of over 50 (51.17 to be precise).

➜ He is the sixth quickest to reach the milestone.

➜ Dhoni has made 6,581 runs while playing both as the captain and wicket-keeper, which is 73 per cent of the total runs he has amassed in ODIs. Only Sangakkara has scored 1,000 runs as wicketkeeper and captain at the time of reaching the same milestone.

➜ Dhoni has hit 196 sixes in ODIs so far and among all those batsmen who have scored at least 9,000, only Chris Gayle has cleared the boundary more number of times than him (229) at the end of the knock that made him a member of the elite club. However, Dhoni’s number took him past Tendulkar (195).

Dhoni’s numbers as a wicketkeeper-batsman:

➜ He holds the record of the highest score by a wicketkeeper-batsman in a ODIs. His highest score is 183 not out off 145 balls which he had scored against Sri Lanka in Jaipur in October 2005. His name figures in the top 10 again as his brilliant 148 off 123 balls against Pakistan scored in Vishakhapatnam the same year is ranked tenth among the wicketkeeper’s highest scores in ODIs.

➜ In terms of a wicketkeeper-batsman scoring most runs in a series, Dhoni though hasn’t that well like in many other fields but yet as an Indian keeper, he holds the record of scoring most number of runs in a multi-side series. He had scored 347 runs in 10 matches (average 69.40) in a tri-series involving Australia and Sri Lanka Down Under in 2007-08. Dhoni had, in fact, led his side to lift the trophy in that series, beating the hosts in the finals.

➜ Dhoni has hit most number of sixes in ODIs for India now. Though he will be best remembered for the one at Mumbai in 2011 that earned India their second 50-over World Cup, he has hit 195 more to go to the top among all Indians (as we said above, he bettered Tendulkar). Only Brendon McCullum, Gayle, Sanath Jayasuriya and Shahid Afridi are placed above him now.

➜ The 35-year-old batsman has hit the second-most number of sixes in an innings by an Indian. He hit 10 of them in his 183 not out against Sri Lanka in 2005 while the highest number belongs to his team-mate Rohit Sharma (16) hit against Australia in 2009. Overall, Dhoni is ranked 13.

➜ Dhoni is ranked 17 in the list of highest maiden ton while just third as an Indian. Only Kapil (175 not out) and Dinesh Mongia (159 not out) are better than Dhoni’s 148 against Pakistan. Both Kapil’s and Mongia’s centuries had come against Zimbabwe.

➜ Dhoni has appeared in 281 ODI matches for India, which is the sixth most.

Dhoni’s numbers as wicketkeeper-captain:

➜ Dhoni’s 347 in a series Down Under also made him India’s first wicketkeeper-captain to finish as the highest scorer in a multi-side series. The only other Indian captain who has done better than him is Sourav Ganguly (thrice).

➜ Dhoni has the record of slamming the highest score in an innings as a wicketkeeper captain for India. His 139 not out off 121 balls against Australia at Mohali in 2013 though is ranked seventh among all Indian captains (Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev, Mohammad Azharuddin and Ganguly twice), but as the wicketkeeper captain, his is the highest.

➜ He has captained India in most number of matches (197) winning 109 of them (average 59.17). He has failed to win 73 matches. Overall, Dhoni is the third senior-most captain in terms of matches. The two ‘ing’s – Ricky Ponting (230) and Stephen Fleming (218) have captained in more matches than him.

Dhoni’s numbers as wicket-keeper:

➜ Dhoni has the most number of dismissals for India as a wicketkeeper. He has 355 scalps so far (264 caught and 91 stumps). Sangakkara (482), Gilchrist (472) and South Africa’s Mark Boucher (424) have done better. After Dhoni, India’s next-best wicketkeeping performance has come Nayan Mongia but he is over 200 scalps short of Dhoni.

➜ Dhoni shares the record of most number of dismissals by a wicketkeeper in an innings (six). He took five catches and effected one stumping against England in Leeds in 2007. Dhoni is one of the two Asian wicketkeepers (the other is Pakistan’s Sarfraz Ahmed) featuring in that list.

➜ As an Indian and Asian wicketkeeper, Dhoni also has effected most number of dismissals in a series (21 in 10 matches in a tri-series involving Australia and Sri Lanka in 2007-08). Overall, he is ranked fourth after Gilchrist (27), Jeff Dujon (23) and Rod Marsh (22).

➜ Dhoni has effected the second-most number of stumpings (91) after Sangakkara (99). In terms of catches, he stands at the fourth position with 264.

*All these records are till the third India-New Zealand ODI played at Mohali on October 23, 2016.