Trust MS Dhoni to spoil your party if you put your guard down even for a split second. Sri Lanka opening batsman Upul Tharanga learnt that the hard way during the final ODI between India and Sri Lanka at Visakhapatnam.
Tharanga was all set to bring up his 16th ODI hundred when MS Dhoni gave an account of his hawk-like eyes to catch the left-hander on the line.
It was the first ball of the 28th over when Kuldeep foxed a well-settled Tharanga with a lovely tossed up delivery that induced him to go for an expansive drive. The ball gripped and spun the past the bat. Nothing was wrong until this point. The only problem for Tharanga was his back foot. It had just moved out of its batting crease. That was all that Dhoni needed. He took a split second, almost waiting for Tharanga to drag his foot out of the crease and as soon as it happened, he tapped the bails off.
Before this though, Tharanga had displayed the best of batting possible on a placid Vizag track. He smashed 95 runs off just 82 balls with three sixes and and 12 fours.
The former Sri Lanka captain also went past 1000 ODI runs in 2017.