Thank you MS Dhoni: A few knocks that proved his mettle

 

MS Dhoni announced his retirement on the evening of independence day which happens to occur on the 15th of August. Although it was bound to occur anytime after world cup 2019, it still left all the MS Dhoni fans in shock and a lot of sadness at the same point of time, rightly so too. After serving the nation for over 16 years, captain cool and his fans should be really proud of what he achieved as a cricketer.

 

Here's a tribute to one of the finest captains cricketing world has ever seen. He is remembered as a fantastic captain and a brilliant wicketkeeper but he always was an unorthodox yet consistent batsman and here are some innings which need to be pointed out. These are those performances which have not been acknowledged much but all of them are quality knocks. So don't look for his 200 or his knock in the finals of world cup or his consistently good performances in tests against England in England in 2014 cause they have been talked about often. So without further ado, let's check it out:- 

45 (33) Vs South Africa World T20 2007 

It was the start of MS Dhoni era in Indian cricket as he took over the captaincy of the team for the inaugural T20I world up in 2007. It was a unit of young lads which made it big and won the tournament. MS Dhoni was praised heavily for his captaincy and his batting performances were not really pointed out. 

Although there weren't too many good performances from him through bat in this tournament, this knock against South Africa was real quality and came at the right point of time. If India had lost this game, they had to walk back home. Thanks to this innings from MS Dhoni and a crucial partnership with Rohit Sharma in the middle that made a big difference and India won the game with a huge margin to qualify into the semifinals!  

90 (106) Vs South Africa (India tour of South Africa 2010/11) 

This was a time when Indian cricket was at its peak and the World Cup was around the corner. India were hot favourites to win the grand trophy but before that, they had to tour South Africa which was the toughest test unit at that point of time. The first test of the series was clearly dominated by South Africa as they won it with an innings and 25 runs. The bowling unit of South Africa thrashed a strong batting line up of India in the first innings but the second innings went a bit differently.

Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni created a great partnership in the second innings. Sachin went on to score an unbeaten hundred while MS fell short of the century by just 10 runs. He went about things aggressively with a strike rate that suited ODIs more. This was one innings where MS Dhoni proved he could bat in tests outside the home that too against a really solid bowling line up consisting of Steyn and Morkel at their peak.

76 (159)* Vs England (India tour of England 2007)

Talking about MS Dhoni's batting potential in test cricket in tough conditions, this was one of the first wake up calls to his critics who believed his unorthodox batting style will fail terribly in the longest format of the game. This was the first test of the series and it happened right after a disastrous performance of India in World Cup 2007. They had to gain back the respect in the eyes of Indian fans that they had lost and there was no better way to do that than winning the test series in England, they eventually did it.

The first test, however, was more in control of England. India was struggling badly in the fourth innings except for a handy half-century from Dinesh Karthik as an opener. It was MS Dhoni who happened to be the highest run-getter for India in that innings. His unbeaten knock saved the match for India which became very crucial in helping the blue men win the series by 1-0. He showed his aggressive side coupled with a solid defence which impressed all the fans of test cricket.

77 (96) and 74 (79)* Vs England (India tour of England 2011) 

This was a disastrous phase for Indian cricket. After winning the world cup in 2011, India had to tour England and Australia one by one and both the tours were strictly one-sided that went in the favour of the hosts. MS Dhoni had to bear a lot of criticism during this phase and his captaincy was declared "too defensive" for test cricket. 

This was also the time when he batted extremely well in really tough conditions in one of the tests against England. All the other batsmen struggled to even get a start while MS Dhoni scored efficient half-centuries in both the innings. This further proved the fact that even in a pressure situation he stays really cool and delivers when the other batsmen find it difficult to make it halfway decent. 

50 (68)* Vs Sri Lanka (Commonwealth Bank Series 2008) 

This was a time when MS Dhoni had just given up his aggressive side and was more defensive in his approach ever since becoming a captain. To some people, scoring just 50 runs in an ODI game that too of 68 balls is not a really impressive performance. How many of you know that he didn't score a single boundary in this game? 

It might be a boring knock to those of them who are into T20 style of batting more but MS Dhoni showed what's more important in an ODI game is converting the 1s into the 2s and he did exactly that. India won this game with 5 balls to spare but it never looked like the game was going anywhere even when the boundaries were not coming. This performance further cemented his game as the street smart cricketer. 

124 (107) Vs Australia (Australia tour of India 2009) 

To some people, this might look like an aggressive innings that featured a lot of fours and sixes. This innings featured only 9 fours and 3 sixes, the majority of them came in the later half of the performance. 70 of the runs came through ones and twos and threes. MS Dhoni was the best Indian batsman in running between the wickets at this point of time coupled with Suresh Raina.

The two of the legends who have retired on the same day too were too good between the wickets and believed in putting their heart out to run aggressively. MS Dhoni got the man of the match award for this but this inning was so much more. It proved that you don't have to continuously hit every second ball for a four or a six to have a strike rate over 100, just the running between the wickets can do the favour to you! 

72 (46) & 77 (56) Vs Pakistan (India tour of Pakistan 2006) 

These innings do not belong to a test game, it rather belongs to two different ODIs. Back in 2005/06, MS Dhoni used to be a really attacking batsman who was feared by the top bowlers too. Yuvraj Singh was close to his peak too around the same point of time. When India toured Pakistan for an ODI series in 2006, both of them used to come out with an unbeaten partnership more often than not and they were referred to as Jai-Viru of Indian cricket.

MS Dhoni used to play the more destructive hand in the partnership. In this series, MS Dhoni got out only once that too after playing a ferocious knock of 68 off just 53 balls. It was 3rd and 5th match of the series, however, where he went a level up in terms of aggressiveness. T20 cricket was still not a thing and in these two games, he scored a combined 112 runs solely from hitting boundaries. It's incredible how he transformed himself to become a much more defensive batsman who would attack only when the situation demanded. 

Thank you captain cool! 

He might not be the Indian captain or Indian cricketer anymore but he will forever remain captain cool and the only captain to win all the major trophies in cricket which even Ricky Ponting failed to do. His unique approach to the game made him so much more impactful since he didn't follow the normal rule of thumb as a captain or a batsman or a wicketkeeper most amount of the times. He still provided results which is what matters the most at the end of the day! 

What are your favourite or underrated innings from MS Dhoni? Let me know in the comments below!