MS Dhoni - The finisher is still unfinished
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MS Dhoni – The finisher is still unfinished: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, hailing from a relatively backward state of Jharkhand, has been successful in putting the name of the nondescript town of Ranchi in the world map of cricket. Making his debut in First Class cricket in 1999-2000 as a wicket-keeper batsman, Dhoni has come a long way in this period of a decade and a half.
After going through the grind in the First Class level for five years he made his international appearance for the first time on 23rd December, 2004, when he made his ODI debut against Bangladesh at Chittagong under the captaincy of Saurav Ganguly. Little did the world know that there would be a ‘role-reversal’ for Dhoni vis-a-vis Ganguly, in times to come.
It was not a memorable debut since Dhoni got ‘run out’ on the very first delivery that he faced. He could not do much with the bat in the four subsequent games that he played later.
However, the 2nd game of the 2005 ODI series against Pakistan played on 5th April, 2005, at Andhra Cricket Association-Vishakapatnam District Cricket Association, Vishakapatnam, brought out the best in Dhoni, the batsman.
Going in to bat at No.3, after the fall of one of the opener, Sachin Tendulkar, first Dhoni had a 96-run partnership in 10.2 overs with the other opener, Virender Sehwag (74, 40b, 12*4, 2*6) for the second wicket and later on, a 149-run fifth-wicket partnership in 22 overs with Rahul Dravid (52, 59b, 3*4).
Dhoni went on to score 148 runs off 123 deliveries with 15 fours and 4 sixes at a strike rate of 120.32 after being at the crease for 155 minutes. He also took 2 catches.
His exploits with the bat helped India set a target of 357 runs for the opposition. India won the game by 58 runs. Thus Dhoni had registered his first international century. He was also adjudged the Player of the Match.
The 3rd game of the 7-ODI, 2005-06 series against Sri Lanka, played on 31st October, 2005, at Sawai Manshingh Stadium, Jaipur, saw Dhoni create a record for the highest individual score by a wicket-keeper batsman.
Chasing a target of 299 runs set by Sri Lanka, Dhoni went in to bat at No.3, at the fall of one of the opener, Sachin Tendulkar.
First, alongwith Virender Sehwag (39, 37b, 3*4), Dhoni scripted a 92-run partnership in 14 overs for the 2nd wicket. Later on, he also built up a 86-run partnership in 12.3 overs for the 3rd wicket with the skipper Rahul Dravid (28, 34b, 2*4), 4th wicket partnership of 65 runs in 9.3 overs with Yuvraj Singh (18, 24b, 3*4) and finally a 53-run 5th wicket unbroken partnership in 9.2 overs with Venugopal Rao (19, 39b, 1*4, 1*6).
These useful partnerships helped India surpass the target by 4 runs and win the match by 6 wickets with 23 deliveries to spare.
Dhoni went on to register his career-best ODI score of 183* runs, batting for 210 minutes, facing 145 deliveries with 15 fours and 10 sixes at a strike rate of 126.20.
In the process, he became the world record holder for the highest individual score by a wicket-keeper batsman in ODIs, surpassing his idol, Adam Gilchrist’s score of 172.
Thus far, Dhoni has featured in 267 games (233 innings), scoring 8743 runs at an average of 52.66 with a strike rate of 89.15. He has 9 centuries and 60 half-centuries to his credit. He has remained unbeaten on 67 occasions. As wicket-keeper, Dhoni has 337 dismissals – 250 catches and 87 stumpings.
The latest has been a match-winning innings of 92* runs (86b, 7*4 4*6) against the touring South Africans at Indore on 13th October, 2015. Having lost the first game at Kanpur, India levelled the series 1-1 in the 5-match series.
Dhoni has led the team in 183 encounters (of the 267 he has played) and has registered victory in 102 games (60.46%), lost 66, tied 4 and 1 game ended in ‘no result’.
He is the most successful ODI captain for India closely followed by Saurav Ganguly with 53.52% success ratio.
Dhoni has successfully led India to victory in the 2011 edition of the 50-over ICC World Cup, a victory that India embraced after 28 years, since Kapil Dev won the Prudential Cup in 1983 in England.
MS made his Test debut against Sri Lanka at Chennai in the 1st Test of 2005-06 series in December 2005 under the captaincy of Rahul Dravid. The match being reduced to a 2-day affair, thanks to weather intervention, Dhoni got an opportunity to bat only in one innings and scored 30 runs.
Since then Dhoni featured in 90 Test matches (144 innings) in which he has scored 4,876 runs at an average of 38.09 with 224 as his individual best. He has 6 centuries and 33 half-centuries to his credit. He remained unbeaten on 16 occasions and as wicket-keeper he affected 294 dismissals – 256 catches and 38 stumpings.
Dhoni quit Test cricket at the end of the 3rd Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2014-15 at Melbourne.
He had led India in 60 Test matches. In the 9 years of his playing in the longer version, he has been successful in taking India to the ‘numero uno’ position in ICC Test rankings.
Dhoni’s achievements in Tests:
- Most successful Indian captain – 27 wins
- Most overseas Test losses as captain – 15
- Second highest number of matches lost as India captain – 18 (Highest 19 by Nawab of Pataudi)
- Most matches as India skipper – 60
- Most wins as India captain at home – 21
- Most runs as Indian skipper – 3,454 runs
- Most matches as India wicket keeper – 90
- Highest individual score by a wicket keeper captain – 224
- Highest individual score by an Indian captain – 224
- 1st Indian captain to complete 10,000 runs (all formats included) in international cricket
- Most dismissals by an Indian wicket keeper – 294 (256 catches and 38 stumpings)
- Only Indian wicket keeper to have over 4,000 Test runs (4,876) and 250+ dismissals
- Took India to No.1 spot in ICC Test Rankings, in 2009
- Only Indian stumper to effect 8 or more dismissals in a Test 4 times
- 1st and only wicket keeper so far to have 9 dismissals in a match (8 catches + 1 stumping) against Australia in Melbourne (December, 2014, his final Test)
- Most ducks by an Indian captain – 8(courtesy: oneindia.com)
In the shortest format, T20I, Dhoni has been very successful. He has created a record of leading in 200 games (T20I, IPL and Champions League). He is acclaimed to be the ‘best finisher’ of the game.
He has led India to win the inaugural ICC T20I World Cup in 2007, leading a bunch of inexperienced but enthusiastic youngsters.
Dhoni has successfully led Chennai Super Kings to back-to-back title wins in 2010 and 2011 editions of IPL. CSK has also featured in four other finals.
Of the 52 T20I games played (and captained) by Dhoni he has won 26 of them (50%), lost 24, tied 1 and 1 game had no-result.
The latest defeats have been against the touring South Africans. The 3-match T20I series was lost 0-2 (Dharmashala and Cuttack) with the 3rd game (Kolkata) being abandoned without a ball being bowled.
Unfortunately, Dhoni has come under a lot of criticism. Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2014-15 was a ‘high point’. Dhoni was singularly blamed for the team’s failure to deliver.
Situation came to such a passé, that he called it ‘quits’ from the longer format, midway through the series. The conclusion of the 3rd Test at Melbourne saw this man, who took Team India to the pinnacle in Tests, walk away without any fanfare.
Thereafter, India did not have a successful outing in the tri-nation series featuring England as the third team. India lost all the games. The ICC World Cup 2015, that followed, also did not have much for India to cherish. Dhoni failed to lead the team in defending the title, they won in 2011.
Later on followed a disastrous tour to Bangladesh in which India lost the ODI series 0-2. Dhoni was having a tough time.
It was expected that the team would regroup and perform well against the touring South Africans. Unfortunately the series did not begin well for Dhoni and India. They lost the T20I series 0-2 and also lost the 1st ODI encounter at Kanpur.
Being under tremendous pressure, Dhoni wanted to effect a change in the batting order. He wanted to promote himself to No 4. Speaking to reporters at Indore, before the beginning of the second ODI, Dhoni said, “Once I left Tests I thought now I want to enjoy my ODI cricket. I want to bat up the order but when I see my team, I find it very difficult to just promote myself. Who is going to bat at Nos 5, 6 and 7? I find it very difficult to put pressure on some of the youngsters in the team. After playing so many ODIs, if I can’t do it, then there are not many who would do it. It’s something that I have to do.”
In the match at Indore, Dhoni went in to bat at No.5, at a very critical juncture when India had put on only 82 runs in 18 overs and had lost 3 big wickets. Dhoni stayed on till the end and ensured that the team put up a reasonably good total of 247 runs in their allotted 50 overs.
The skipper remained unbeaten on 92 runs (86b, 7*4, 4*6). He showed his class when it mattered most and led the team to victory.
Dhoni has still a lot to offer to Indian cricket. He has a major assignments at his behest the World T20, 2016 that will be played at home and we all know what happened when India last played a world cup on home soil.
Let this big man not be written-off so soon. The great ‘finisher’ is not yet ‘finished’.
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