It is not quite normal for a player to hog the limelight when Virender Sehwag is batting at the other end but the last day of October 2005 saw it happening as Indian wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni played an astonishing innings against Sri Lanka to overshadow his illustrious batting partner.

India were leading Sri Lanka by 2-0 in the seven-match ODI series. The way the hosts thrashed Sri Lanka in the first two matches, it seemed that they would walk away with the third match also. However, the visitors staged a brilliant comeback and riding on Kumar Sangakkara’s brilliant 138 posted a massive 298 runs in their 50 overs.

Chasing such a huge target, India were in a spot of bother when they lost their star batsman Sachin Tendulkar in the very first over. The whole stadium was sad after seeing Sachin walking back to the pavilion but little did they know that they were going to witness one of the best ODI innings of all time. Coming in at number three, Dhoni hit 3 sixes and a four in his first 26 runs. Continuing his explosive batting, he completed his fifty in only 40 balls. On the other side, Sehwag was surprisingly playing the second fiddle to Dhoni. And after scoring 39 off 37 balls he was dismissed.But that did not affect Dhoni’s batting as he continued to play his shots. In the 18th over India had a mighty scare when Dhoni pulled his thigh muscles but he continued his batting much to the relief of the team. He started hitting the bowlers to all the parts of the ground. However, the thigh muscle pain increased in the 32nd over and then Virender Sehwag was called to run for Dhoni. Putting the setback behind, Dhoni continued the firepower with the bat and scored a brilliant 183 runs off only 145 balls.

Enjoy the brilliant knock: