Sachin hails Dhoni for century of fifties ›
Yet another 100 for! This time in front of the stumps! Congratulations on a century of 50s Mahi SACHIN TENDULKAR, on Twitter
MUMBAI: His critics may have been making sporadic demands for answers over his future, but MS Dhoni does not seem to be wrapping up anytime soon. On the other hand, the former captain, who has been a vital cog for India late in the batting order, has been on a record-making spree.
Dhoni on Sunday created yet another record when he notched up a fine 79-run knock against Australia at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Dhoni completed a 100 half-centuries in international cricket, becoming the fourth Indian batsman to do so. The 36-year-old has so far scored 33 half-centuries in Test cricket, 66 in ODIS and one in T20IS.
With 164 fifties, Sachin Tendulkar leads the list followed by Rahul Dravid (146) and Sourav Ganguly (107) in terms of making most fifties in international cricket across formats.
India skipper Virat Kohli has 75 fifties, having played 305 matches across formats, aggregating 15,075 runs.
Tendulkar shared a photo- graph of Dhoni from Sunday’s match and congratulated him. “Yet another 100 for! This time in front of the stumps! Congratulations on a century of 50s Mahi,” he tweeted.
Dhoni had set the record of 100 stumpings as an ODI wicketkeeper in Sri Lanka. He achieved the feat during the fifth ODI in Colombo earlier this month.
Former Sri Lanka cricketer Kumar Sangakkara is on the sec- ond position with 99 stumpings in a career spanning over 15 years and 404 ODIS.
FINISHER’S ROLE
Dhoni played a match-winning role in the first ODI at Chennai. Walking out to bat with India tottering at 64 for four after 16 overs and slipping to 87 for five soon, he teamed up with Hardik Pandya to turn the game.
Dhoni added 118 runs with the explosive Pandya who raced to a 66-ball 83, as India finished at a commendable 281 for seven in their allotted 50 overs.
Despite rain interruption resulting in long delays, India won the game by 26 runs via the Duckworth-lewis Method restricting Australia to 137 for nine in 21 overs.