Stats: MS Dhoni records the slowest ODI fifty by an Indian in the 21st century

It was probably one of the toughest days for MS Dhoni in International cricket where he was on the receiving end of criticism despite scoring a fifty. The 35-year-old scored 54 runs in 114 balls consuming 108 balls for his fifty against Windies in the 4th ODI of the ongoing 5-match series; which has earned him the unwanted record of the slowest half century by an Indian in ODI cricket in the 21st century.

Dhoni couldn’t find the fence even once in the first 100 balls faced. His first and only boundary came on the 103rd ball of this innings when he pushed a ball around his legs in the only over bowled by Roston Chase.

This wasn’t the first time Dhoni took a substantial number of balls to bring up his fifty in ODIs. He took more than 80 balls on four occasions for his fifty before this game and the slowest of those was the one that came in 88 balls against Pakistan in 2013 when he stood out as a lone warrior with wickets fell relentlessly on the other end.

Slowest fifties in ODIs for MS Dhoni: (balls taken)

There were no notes for the balls taken for 50-runs and 100-runs milestones in the early days especially for ODIs which means the number of balls taken by the likes of Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri who scored fifties with a strike rate around 40 isn’t available.

However, including the one Dhoni scored in the 4th ODI, there are only 4 fifties by Indians where they have taken 100 or more balls in matches since 1998 for which the data is available. MSD’s 108-ball fifty stands at no.2 with the slowest on the name of former Indian opener Sadagoppan Ramesh, who took 116 balls to get to his half ton against Kenya in 1999.

Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly needed 105 balls for his fifty in 2005 against Sri Lanka in the Indian Oil Triangular series. He managed to add one more run before getting out for 51 after facing 110 balls. In the same innings, Ganguly completed 10000 runs in ODI cricket. In fact, Ganguly took 100 balls for another ODI fifty in this period as he played 104 balls to score 50 runs against Bangladesh in 2007 CWC.

Slowest fifties by Indians in ODI cricket: (since 1998)

(Stats as on July 3, 2017)