In the first part of this post, we covered 4 of Dhoni’s top 10 amazing presence of mind moments on field. Now, in the part 2 of this, we shall look at the remaining 6 moments.
Number 6 – Dhoni’s impeccable timing
This match happened in the first season of IPL, in 2008. Chennai was facing Kolkata and Dhoni’s side was fielding. For Kolkata, all rounder Laxmi Ratan Shukla and tail ender Ishant Sharma were batting. Joginder Sharma bowled a delivery to Shukla who tried to defend. But the ball missed his bat and went to Dhoni, who was behind the wicket.
Ishant Sharma saw this and ran for a bye. But, Shukla did not respond and did not leave his crease. Sharma kept running until he reached the strikers end, and there was no way he could have come back to the crease. Hence, he kept walking towards pavilion, knowing that he would be run out.
But then Dhoni saw that Shukla too is out of the crease. He instantly asked the bowler to wait before whipping the bails off. The bowler obliged and so as soon as Ishant crossed the strike, Dhoni asked the bowler to take the bails off. Consequently, it was revealed that Shukla was the batsman whi got run out as Ishant had crossed the crease before him.
Number 5 – Dhoni manipulates field
The match happened between India and Australia in 2008. It was the triangular tournament, in which the third team was Sri Lanka. In this match although, India were chasing a target of 207 runs. At one stage, India’s score was 73-4 and Mitch Johnson was bowling to Dhoni.
Ricky Ponting had set a strong off side fielding for Dhoni. So, the wicket keeper batsman came down the track to Johnson express pace and took the ball on a length, deftly guiding it into the leg side. Since, this side of the area was vacant, Dhoni easily collected three runs, despite minimum effort with the bat.
Number 4 – Dhoni’s sensational backflip on stumps
This game was played between India and New Zealand in 2016. New Zealand was batting first and slog overs were going on. Ross Taylor, the kiwi batsman hit a delivery towards square leg and ran for a two. However, it was a small ground and two runs were difficult.
The fielder charged in from square leg and picked the ball quickly, throwing it to Dhoni. The wicket keeper was alert and instead of getting hold of the ball, he just back flipped the ball in to the stumps, catching Ross Taylor short of the crease. It was a stuff of genius from Dhoni as he hit the stumps without even looking at it.
Number 3 – Last ball run out by Dhoni
It was a world T20 match between India and Bangladesh in 2016. Bangladesh were chasing a modest target of 147. The match came down to last ball, where the last pair of Bangladesh batsman required 2 runs to win and 1 run to tie. Hardik Pandya bowled to the last batsman and he missed the ball. However, the two batsmen ran for a bye, so that the match could be a tie.
Dhoni saw this and he too ran with the ball towards the stumps as fast as he could. It was he who reached then crease before the batsman and ran him out, which was confirmed in the replays. India had won by 1 run, thanks to Dhoni’s outstanding run out.
Number 2 – Dhoni stumps on a wide
This game was between India and Pakistan. Shahid Afridi was batting like he always does. Dhoni brought Sachin Tendulkar to bowl to him and gestured him to bowl widely. Tendulkar did exactly that as Afridi came down the track to him and was left stranded. Dhoni completed the easiest of stumpings, thanks to a bit of genius use of mind.
Number 1 – Dhoni runs out Oram
It was a T20 match between India and New Zealand. Jacob Oram was batting and Yuvraj Singh was bowling to him. Yuvi bowled a full length delivery as Oram got down to sweep. The ball however, missed his bat, went off his pads and bounced in the air where Dhoni took the ball. Oram by that moment, had left the crease.
Dhoni saw this and quickly flipped the ball back onto stumps, before Oram could realise anything. Hence, he was caught short of the crease and was run out. It was another superb glove work by Dhoni and an unparalleled presence of mind.
Watch the top 10 Dhoni’s moments here:
