Rarest of rare: Dhoni misses a run out opportunity

Photo: AP

New Delhi: MS Dhoni is a rare brand of cricketer. You don’t always find a bottom handed hard hitter, a reliable finsisher and and the swistest of gloveswork in one person. Add to that the blind one handed flciks to the stumps, the helicopters – you get one of the rarest spectacles on the cricket field, so rare that even a missed run out, which is not an eye brow raising incident by any means, becomes the talk of the town.

The ones watching the India-Sri Lanka third ODI, to be precise the 25th over, could already count themselves amongst the lucky ones. They had witnessed  the rarest of rare things - MS Dhoni missing a run out opportunity. Yes, you read that right.

So what exactly happened? Axar Patel bowled a regular delivery which Dinesh Chandimal flicked off the back foot, nothing unanatural there. But the turn of events after that were baffling. First Chandimal set off for a suicidal single and then the mother of it all, Dhoni failed to gather the ball and knocked the stumps down with his gloves. Wow! It took a minute for everyone to realize that it had actually happened, Dhoni had really missed a run out.

Before everyone joins in the let’s find a replacement for Dhoni chorus, a gentle reminder that this is the same man who won India the 2nd ODI by putting a record 100-run 8th wicket stand  with Bhuvnehswar Kumar, and the same Dhoni, who is just one away from reaching a hundred stumpings – a world record.