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Plethora of records for Dhoni

February 24, 2013 18:01 IST

MS Dhoni played gem of an innings to put India in a strong position against Australia in the Chennai Test. Coming into bat after the fall of Tendulkar’s wicket, Dhoni scored 206 runs out of the 319 runs scored by India.

He established many new records during his highest innings in first-class cricket. We take a look:

Dhoni: session-wise details

  Balls Runs 4s/6s SR
1st session 42 37 4/0 88.10
2nd session 74 60 8/1 81.08
3rd session 127 109 10/4 85.83
TOTAL 243 206 22/5 84.77

Dhoni’s innings is the highest by a wicketkeeper–captain in Test cricket, obliterating England’s Alec Stewart’s 164 vs South Africa at Manchester in 1998.

Dhoni’s innings is also the highest by an Indian wicketkeeper in Test cricket, putting into shade Budhi Kunderan’s 192 vs England also at Chennai in 1963-64.

Dhoni’s innings is now the second highest by an Indian captain in Test cricket, after Sachin Tendulkar’s 217 vs New Zealand at Ahmedabad in 1999-00.

Dhoni scored 109 runs in the post tea session. He is only the sixth Indian batsman to score a hundred in a session after Polly Umrigar, Mohammad Azharuddin, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh. Sehwag has done this on three occasions.

Dhoni raced to his double hundred off 231 balls, which is the sixth fastest double hundred by an Indian and 11th joint fastest in Test cricket.

It is also the fastest double hundred against Australia. Viv Richards –who took 242 balls to race to his double hundred at Melbourne in 1984-85- held the previous record.

Fastest double hundreds in Test cricket for India

Balls Batsman Opponents Venue Season
168 V Sehwag (293) Sri Lanka Mumbai BS 2009-10
182 V Sehwag (254) Pakistan Lahore 2005-06
194 V Sehwag (319) South Africa Chennai 2007-08
222 V Sehwag (309) Pakistan Multan 2003-04
227 V Sehwag (201*) Sri Lanka Galle 2008
231 MS Dhoni (206*) Australia Chennai 2012-13

The 206 runs scored by Dhoni are the fourth most by an Indian in a single day in Test cricket. Virender Sehwag is the only other to have scored more. Sehwag, in fact, has scored 284, 257 and 228 runs in a single day’s play.

Dhoni has now aggregated 2667 runs as Indian captain, which takes him past Sourav Ganguly’s tally of 2561 runs. Now only Sunil Gavaskar (3449) and Mohammad Azharuddin (2856) are ahead of Dhoni in scoring more runs while captaining India.

Most runs by Indian captains in Tests

  Mts Runs Hs Avg 100 50
SM Gavaskar 47 3449 205 50.72 11 14
M Azharuddin 47 2856 192 43.93 9 9
MS Dhoni 44 2667 206* 45.20 5 19
SC Ganguly 49 2561 144 37.66 5 13
MAK Pataudi 40 2424 203* 34.14 5 13
SR Tendulkar 25 2054 217 51.35 7 7

Dhoni now also holds the Indian record of most runs as captain in all international cricket (Tests, ODIs, T20Is combined). He went ahead of Mohammad Azharuddin’s tally of 8095 runs.

Most runs by Indian captains in int’l cricket (Tests / ODIs / T20Is)

  Mts Runs Hs Avg 100 50
MS Dhoni 220 8197 206* 49.37 10 53
M Azharuddin 221 8095 192 40.88 13 46
SC Ganguly 195 7643 144 38.40 16 43
SR Tendulkar 98 4508 217 42.93 13 19
R Dravid 104 4394 146 43.07 6 35
SM Gavaskar 84 4151 205 43.69 11 19

-Rajneesh Gupta

 

Rajneesh Gupta