Back in 2004, the Indian cricket team was in search of a full-time wicket-keeper who could perform with the bat as well. The BCCI came up with Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s name and since then there was no looking back for the young cricketer from Ranchi. Despite facing several failures early in his career, he emerged as a clever cricketer to represent India and later became one of the successful captains with numerous records to his name. In the course of time, he started finishing matches with his powerful strikes and earned the tagline – ‘The Best Finisher’.
There have been many instances when Dhoni couldn’t score big but by keeping his cool, batted till the end and took the game home. He used to emerge as the last hope when the top order of the team collapsed. As a captain of the team, he did many such marvels and made the country proud.
Here we list 5 underrated innings played by MS Dhoni which ended up in the winning cause:
1. 45 vs South Africa in Durban, 2007
MS Dhoni knocked 45 runs against South Africa in World T20 2007
It happened during the inaugural edition of the World T20I Cup when MS Dhoni was newly appointed as captain of the Indian cricket team. In a match against South Africa, Indian batted first and lost the first wicket in the 5th over itself. Gautam Gambhir departed after scoring run-a-ball 19 runs after which Sehwag (11), Dinesh Karthik (0) and Robin Uthappa (15) returned to pavilion one after the other. In 10 overs, Team India was reduced to 61/4 and that is when MS Dhoni to bat. Along with Rohit Sharma, he played an essential inning of 45 runs which took the team to a total 153 runs.
India won the game and later turned out to be the world champions.
2. 46* vs West Indies in Gros Islet, 2009
MS Dhoni bagged the Man of the Series in 2009 tour to West Indies/ Photo: ESPN Cricinfo
It was a rain affected game and the total number of overs were reduced to 27. West Indies batted first and with Ram Naresh Sarwan’s inning of 62 runs, they posted 186 runs on the board. Though India had a good start, they lost both the openers, Dinesh Karthik (47) and Gautam Gambhir (44) within 16 overs. MS Dhoni came at number 3 and played till the end to win the game. He remained unbeaten on 46 off 33 balls.
3. 85* vs Zimbabwe, Auckland, 2015
MS Dhoni played an inning of 85 runs against Zimbabwe in World Cup 2015/ Photo: NDTV Sports
During a Pool B game between India and Zimbabwe in World Cup 2015, India locked horns with Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe batted first and set a target of 288 runs. While chasing the target, Team India lost early wickets and by the 23rd over, the score was 92/4. From that point onwards, MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina took the charge of scoring runs and played a counter-attacking inning.
Raina ended up scoring 110 not-out off 104 while MS Dhoni remained unbeaten on 85 off 76 balls. India won the game by 6 wickets with 8 balls remaining.
4. 92* vs South Africa in Indore, 2015
MS Dhoni score 92 off 86 balls against South Africa in 2015/ Photo: Cricketnmore
MS Dhoni played another saviour inning during the 2015 Freedom Series when South Africa visited India to play the bilateral series. The Indians had already lost the T20I series by 2-0 and also the first game of the 5-match ODI series. In the second ODI, India batted first and openers were sent back to pavilion very early. Ajinkya Rahane’s 63-ball 51 and then MS Dhoni’s 92 off 86 balls took India to post a decent total of 247 runs.
Dhoni scored his fifty off 51 balls while scored the next 42 runs off just 51 balls. He hit 7 fours and 4 sixes, most by any batsman in that game.
5. 45* vs West Indies in Perth, 2015
MS Dhoni played the captains inning against West Indies in 2015 World Cup/ Photo: PTI
This was another 2015 World Cup clash in which West Indies batted first but failed to put a big score on the board. The entire team collapsed within 44.2 overs, scoring only 185 runs.
In return, the Indian team had a very poor start. Both the openers, Rohit Sharma (7) and Shikhar Dhawan (9), lost their wickets within 7 overs. Next batsmen, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane also were also back to the pavilion soon and the Indians were reduced to 107/5 by 23rd over.
MS Dhoni once again saved the game in the grand world tournament and played an inning of unbeaten 45 runs off 56 balls and took the game home.
MS Dhoni will be playing the forthcoming ODI series against Australia which is going to start from September 17. He played phenomenally in the recently concluded series against Sri Lanka and will look forward to continue his good form in the series ahead.
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