MS Dhoni has been on a roll since India’s tour of West Indies and there hasn’t been a single match where he hasn’t contributed either with his bat or from behind the wickets. From getting back to scoring runs and bringing the middle order to life once again, to giving us some of the miraculous eye-catching, bail dislodging entertainment from behind the stumps, the former skipper is showing the world that there is a lot of cricket left in the phenomenon known as MS Dhoni.
During the India vs Australia 2017, 2nd ODI, MS Dhoni added two more stumps into his tally and while one helped Kuldeep Yadav becoming the only third Indian to register an ODI hat-trick, the other made MS Dhoni, the apple of every cricket fan’s eyes.
Before dwelling more into the matter, India batting wasn’t at its best at the Eden Gardens but the Virat Kohli-led squad managed to rally and register a respectable score of 252 runs on the back of a solid 92-runs knock by the skipper himself coupled with Ajinkya Rahane’s opening knock of 55 runs.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar (6.1-9-3) then rocked the Australian top order with his crafty spell with the new ball while dismissing both the openers at a single digit score. It was down to the Australian skipper, Steve Smith (59) and Travis Head (39) to rebuild the innings. However, while both batted sensibly for a 76-run partnership for the third wicket, the Indian wrist spinners took center stage and that was the end for visitors despite Marcus Stoinis (62*) efforts in the middle order.
Virat Kohli & Co. snitched a huge 50-runs victory to take a 2-0 lead in the India vs Australia 2017 series and also clinching the No.1 position in ICC ODI ranking by dethroning South Africa.
Now coming to the MS Dhoni’s magical show, all we can say is, there are the best wicket-keepers in the world and then there is MS Dhoni. There is an unparalleled aura that takes over the ground in MS Dhoni’s presence and Glenn Maxwell’s stumping is why it exists in the first place.
In the 23rd over, Maxwell (14) looked uneasy as well as desperate to hit it big hit in order to keep the momentum going after hitting two huge sixes. Yuzvendra Chahal bowled four dot balls to the batsman which probably didn’t go down well as the ‘big-hitter’ decided to come down the wicket on the fifth ball but Chahal had already anticipated the same and he shortened his length. The ball went through the legs of Glenn Maxwell, just brushing through his pad and MS Dhoni, as expected, was quick enough to whip the bails off.
Watch the video here
https://twitter.com/DekhoIsko/status/910874735327584257
As for the series, Virat Kohli & Co. is now in the lead with 2-0 and Australia will enter the third ODI in a do or die situation and a win will give them a chance to fight for another day.