On January 10, MS Dhoni played his last match as a skipper when he led India A in the warm up match against England at Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium.
Though India A lost the match by 3 wickets, Dhoni, who walked out on to the pitch to bat amid much roar from his fans, entertained the crowd as he went on to make 68 runs of 40 balls with 23 runs being taken from the last over in typical MSD’s style.
Any routine warm up match, especially on a working day, may not witness a big crowd, but the one featuring the Dhoni was a special one. Almost 15,000 to 20,000 fans were there to witness this historic match.
As soon as Dhoni walked out to bat the whole crowd started chanting ‘Dhoni..Dhoni’.
Such was the madness that at one point an overenthusiastic fan broke the security cover and ran out onto the pitch to touch Dhoni’s feet.
The man was later escorted out of the playing area by the police and then taken out of the stadium.
Earlier on January 4, MS Dhoni surprised his fans after he stepped down as India’s limited overs captain.
Dhoni has captained India in 199 ODIs and 72 T20Is and led the country to its second ODI World Cup title in 2011 and to the semi-finals in 2015. He had retired from the longer version of the game in 2014, handing over the reins to Kohli, leading to a rare split captaincy in Indian cricket.
With this decision, Kohli has the full mantle of leadership.
