Slam-bang king MS Dhoni still waiting for elusive T20I fifty

March 14, 2014

MS_DhoniNew Delhi, Mar 14: Mahendra Singh Dhoni is unarguably one of India's finest finisher in the shortest format but there is one little piece of statistic which the 'Captain Cool' wouldn't certainly be amused of and would like to change it during the course of the fifth ICC World T20.

Believe it or not, the captain is yet to score his maiden half-century in T20 Internationals having donned the blue jersey in 43 of the 46 matches that India has played so far. Sounds weird but Dhoni's aggregate of 772 runs is most by any batsman without a single fifty in T20 Internationals. Incidentally, his highest score is 48 not out against Australia in a losing cause at the 'Stadium Australia' in Sydney.

Interestingly, during that particular match, Dhoni was batting on 45 after the completion of the penultimate over but to his utter dismay found that Ravichandran Ashwin consumed four of the six deliveries. In the remaining two deliveries, he scored three runs to get to 48 not out as India lost by 31 runs.

Dhoni has mainly batted at No 5 or 6 (13 times each) in the T20 Internationals which effectively meant that on most occasions, only few overs were left. A testimony to that is remaining not out on 16 occasions out of the 40 times that he went into bat during those 43 games.

The three games that he had missed out were when his jaded body needed rest. He opted out of the 2010 tour of Zimbabwe where India played two T20 Int'ls under Suresh Raina's captaincy.

The other T20 game that he missed was during India's tour of West Indies in 2011 when he had opted out of the limited overs series (T20's and ODis) having played World Cup and IPL back-to-back in four months of gruelling cricket.

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News Network
March 29,2020

New Delhi, Mar 29: Former Indian batsman Wasim Jaffer on Sunday picked his all-time IPL team and appointed wicket-keeper batsman MS Dhoni as its captain.

Jaffer's team's feature opener Rohit Sharma, current Indian skipper Virat Kohli, all-rounder Hardik Pandya, spinner R Ashwin, and pacer Jasprit Bumrah as seven domestic players.
While the foreign players spot have been occupied by West Indies' swashbuckling batsman Chris Gayle, all-rounder Andre Russell, Afghanistan's spinner Rashid Khan, and Sri Lanka's veteran pacer Lasith Malinga.
Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has been picked as 12th man by Jaffer.

Earlier this month, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to postpone the IPL to April 15, 2020, as a precautionary measure against COVID-19 outbreak.
The board also assured that it will work in unison with the Sports Ministry and will adhere to the guidelines issued.

The 13th edition of IPL was scheduled to commence from March 29. 

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News Network
June 10,2020

New Delhi, Jun 10: Former India skipper Rahul Dravid has praised the batting of MS Dhoni during the backend of a match, saying that the wicket-keeper often played during the period as if the result did not really matter to him.

Dravid also said that in pressure-cooker situations, not worrying about consequences can help players bring out the best in themselves.

"You watch MS Dhoni play during the backend of a match when he was at his best, you always felt like that he is doing something really important to him but he is playing it like the result does not really matter to him," Dravid told Sanjay Manjrekar during a videocast hosted by ESPNCricinfo.

"I think you need to have that or you need to train for it. It is a skill that I never had. The consequences of any decision mattered to me. It would be interesting to ask MS Dhoni that is this something that has come naturally to him or did he work on this during his career," he added.

Dhoni made his ODI debut against Bangladesh in 2004, but he truly arrived in the series against Pakistan in 2005 when he scored 148 runs in the second ODI of the six-match series at Vishakapatnam.

He is the only captain to win all major ICC trophies (50-over World Cup, T20 World Cup, and Champions Trophy). Under his leadership, India also managed to attain the number one ranking in Test cricket.

He first led an inexperienced Indian side to the T20 World Cup triumph in 2007. He then took over ODI captaincy, but he had to wait for leading the Test side as Anil Kumble was doing the duties in the longest format.

Over his career, Dhoni has been reowned for his finishing skills and he is often viewed as the best finisher that the game has ever seen.

In December 2014, Dhoni announced his retirement from the longest format of the game.

Then in 2017, Dhoni handed over the captaincy reins to Virat Kohli in the 50-over format.

Dhoni was slated to return to the cricket field on March 29 in the IPL's opening match between CSK and Mumbai Indians. However, the tournament has been suspended indefinitely as a precautionary measure against coronavirus.

Thirty-eight-year-old Dhoni has been currently enjoying some time away from the game. He last played competitive cricket during the 2019 World Cup.

Dhoni recently had to face criticism for his slow batting approach during India's matches.

Earlier this year, Dhoni did not find a place in the list of BCCI's centrally contracted players from October 2019 to September 2020.

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Agencies
May 9,2020

Tokyo, May 9: As the world continues to grapple with coronavirus pandemic, the organisers of Tokyo Game Show have cancelled 2020 showpiece event.

TGS 2020 was slated to be played from September 24 to September 27 at the Makuhari Messe convention center. However, there now talks going on for holding an online event instead.

According to the Verge, this is the first time that TGS has ever been cancelled since it started in 1996.

TGS 2020 gained more attention because of its status as the last major trade show before the launch of the upcoming next-gen consoles, the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5.

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