MS Dhoni made a roaring comeback as an Indian captain, inflicting two lightning-quick stumpings with one of them being in 00.12 seconds during Afghanistan’s innings in the Asia Cup Super 4 match at Dubai.
Dhoni, who returned as an Indian captain after 696 days, left his mark on the match even before walking out to bat by his brilliant glovework behind the stumps.
Afghanistan were off to a flier with Mohammad Shahzad going hammer and tongs before Ravindra Jadeja came into the attack to bring relief to India. In the 13th over, Jadeja found the gap between the bat and pad of Javed Ahmadi, who till then had been a mere spectator. The ball, however, evaded the stumps and Ahmadi by then had lost his balance. Dhoni was quick to spot this and took the bails off in a flash (00.12 seconds) to give India their first breakthrough after a 65-run opening stand.
The Indian spinners were on a roll after getting the first wicket and so was Dhoni. Kuldeep Yadav made Afghanistan’s highest scorer in the Asia Cup – Hashmatullah Shahidi - flick against the line and spun it past his bat with a beautiful delivery. Just like Ahmadi, Shahidi too lost his footing and Dhoni did not need a second invitation. His timing for this stumping? 00.16 seconds.
This was after Dhoni became the third cricketer to captain in 200 ODIs after Australia’s Ricky Ponting and New Zealand’s Stephen Fleming.
"I was not really sure of where I am standing. I have captained 199 ODIs, so this gives me an opportunity to make it 200. It's all destiny and I always believed in that. It's not in my control, once I left captainship. Good to complete 200, but I don't think it really matters," Dhoni said at toss time.
Dhoni was handed over the captaincy after India decided to rest regular captain Rohit Sharma and four other first XI cricketers – Shikhar Dhawan, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yuzvendra Chahal.