At a time when questions are dangling over his position in the Indian limited overs side, an unflustered MS Dhoni continues to carry on with his business as usual behind the stumps, gobbling up catches and dislodging the bails off in a flash.
After creating a buzz in social media with his acrobatic catch running backwards in the 3rd ODI, it was time for Dhoni to showcase his swiftness with the gloves. The victim was West Indies’ Keemo Paul, who did not even wait for the third umpire’s decision.
In the 28th over of the West Indies chase, Jadeja was successful in drawing the batsman out of his crease with a flighted delivery which turned slightly more than usual. Paul, who had come out with the only intention of entertaining the crowd, just dragged his back foot outside the crease with the hope of smothering the spin but failed.
It took Dhoni 0.7 of a second to dislodge the bails with replays confirming the inevitable. Paul, for his part, had already completed majority of his journey back to the pavilion. The wicket took India a step closer to victory.
Chasing the target of 378, West Indies were bowled out for 153 as India took a 2-1 lead beating them by 224 runs – their third biggest victory in ODIs.
Earlier, Dhoni fell one run short of reaching 10,000 ODI runs for India. Dhoni has accumulated a total of 10,173 runs in the 50-over format, however, the record also contains the 174 runs which he smashed against the Africa XI while representing the Asia XI in a three-match rubber in 2007.
Thus, Dhoni has 9,999 runs while representing India and after managing a meagre 23 against the Windies at the Brabourne Stadium here, the 37-year-old missed the landmark by just a single run.