There were quite a few eyebrows raised after India, who have forged a reputation for being masters of the chase, failed to chase down 190 against West Indies in the fourth One-Day International of their series in Antigua on Sunday.
Much of the attention revolved around Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The 35-year-old crawled to a 114-ball 54 but ultimately could not win his team the match, holing out in the last ball of the penultimate over.
In more ways than one, it was one of the most unique knocks he has played. The slowness of his innings left many bewildered:
Dhoni - 54 off 114 - SR of 47.36.
— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) July 2, 2017
- His slowest inns of 25+ runs
- Slowest 50 by an Indian in last 15 years
India fail to chase 190 v WI.
MS Dhoni's 108-ball fifty is the slowest by an Indian in ODIs since 2000. Prev slowest: 105 balls by Sourav Ganguly vs SL in 2005. #WIvIND
— Sampath Bandarupalli (@SampathStats) July 2, 2017
Slowest 50s on record for India in ODIs:
— Rajneesh Gupta (@rgcricket) July 2, 2017
110 S Ramesh vs Kenya (1999)
108 MS DHONI (Today)
105 S Ganguly vs SL (2005)#WIvIND #INDvWI
Slowest ODI fifties for MS Dhoni (By balls):
— Umang Pabari (@UPStatsman) July 2, 2017
108 v WI, Today*
88 v Pak, Delhi, 2013
87 v WI, Kingston, 2009#WIvIND
In individual innings of 100+ balls, Dhoni's strike rate of 47.36 is the lowest by any player, for any team, since 18 July 2014. #WIvInd
— Freddie Wilde (@fwildecricket) July 2, 2017
So too, the complete lack of boundaries.
Among innings of 100+ balls for India, the one boundary hit by Dhoni is the equal fifth fewest, tied with Gavaskar's 36* (174). #WIvInd
— Freddie Wilde (@fwildecricket) July 2, 2017
MS Dhoni has now faced 100-plus balls in this match without hitting a boundary (4 or 6). #WIvIND
— Umang Pabari (@UPStatsman) July 2, 2017
Dhoni was straddling the lines of history...
In more than 25 years, no Indian batsman had played 100+ balls in an ODI inns without a boundary. As of now, that's what Dhoni has done.
— Bishen Jeswant (@bishen_jeswant) July 2, 2017
The only bright spot for him was that he had scored back-to-back half-centuries after a very long time.
Back-to-back 50+ scores for Dhoni in ODIs for the first time since Jan 2010 in the series in NZ. #WIvIND
— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) July 2, 2017
But it still could not take away from the sheer bizarre nature of the match!
Runs 367
— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) July 2, 2017
Balls 598
Wkts 19
RR 3.68
This is the slowest ODI match, in terms of run rate, in the last 5 years where 95+ overs were bowled.
In the last one month, India have lost ODI games to sides ranked...
— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) July 2, 2017
#7 Sri Lanka
#8 Pakistan
#9 West Indies#INDvWI