Sri Lanka vs India 2017: MS Dhoni Creates a Unique Record for a Wicket keeper – Batsman
Jan 9, 2019 at 4:02 PM
Heading into the five-match affair against Sri Lanka, the series had plenty at stake for former skipper MS Dhoni. Several pundits and analysts considered Dhoni a rather pale shadow of himself, as his numbers for 2016 hadn’t been anything extraordinary.
The fact that he had relinquished his ODI captaincy was another major reason, which made people believe that Dhoni might not last the distance till 2019.
However, post the four games, all those who initially questioned Dhoni had been done to eat the humble pie. Thanks to Dhoni, India didn’t just seal off two tense chases, but the former captain also made a hard hitting statement with his performance.
With scores of 45*, 67* and 49* so far in the three innings he has batted in, Dhoni has once again let his bat do all the talking, as he has been the ideal middle-order batsman who can need. Apart from being the ever destructive finisher he is, Dhoni has more significantly steadied the ship on a couple of occasions, which is a rather a fine aspect.
During the fourth ODI at Colombo, the great man went past a few records, while even creating some. Playing his 300th ODI, it was the 467th international game for him. This means that he now has the most number of international games being a wicketkeeper, going past the tally of Mark Boucher, who featured in 466 games as a wicketkeeper.
Not just that, his unbeaten knock of 49 also meant that Dhoni now has the most number of not outs in ODI cricket, with his tally standing at 73. Former South African skipper Shaun Pollock and former Sri Lankan pacer Chaminda Vaas are joint second on this list with 72, not outs.
More than anything else, however, for a wicketkeeper with 300 ODI’s, Dhoni also has the maximum number of ODI runs, with his tally at 9657 runs.