Happy Birthday MS Dhoni: A lowdown on numbers of ODI legend a chase master

1. The Original chase master

Virat Kohli has astounded us with some brilliant innings during chases since 2015-16 season. His ODI average of nearly 60 stands as an evidence for his efficiency in that format. But before Kohli came, Dhoni had already climbed a few mountains and set a benchmark for others to follow. He averages 102.71 in successful chases, comfortably ahead of Kohli who averages 96.21. Rohit Sharma has the next best average by an Indian batsman in successful chase: 63.37.

2. Overall ODI record

Dhoni so far has played 350 ODIs, the most by a wicketkeeper batsman. Former Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara has played 404 ODIs but less than 350 as a pure wicketkeeper batsman for his team. From 297 ODI innings, Dhoni has made 10773 runs at 50.57, one of the highest averages in ODIs, at a strike-rate of 87.56 with 10 hundreds and 73 fifties.

3. A big contributor to wins

It's no secret that Dhoni made most of his runs in India's wins in ODI formats. He batted regularly at No 5 or 6 and it is amazing for a batsman at that position to score this volume of runs and at such a high average. The only other middle-order batsman to average so much was Australia's Michael Bevan. From 232 ODIs, Bevan made 6912 runs at 53.6 with 6 hundreds and 46 fifties, most of them in some thrilling chases ever. But Bevan is also not a match for Dhoni when it comes to scoring runs in team's victory. Dhoni averages 69 when India registered wins in ODIs, while chasing or otherwise, but Kohli has an average of 77.37 in India's overall wins. However, Pakistan's ODI captain Babar Azam has the highest average in team's victory - 85.37.

4. The Dhoni era

It can safely that generally Dhoni did not suffer any major dip of form in ODI cricket and his career graph remained upward or flat most of the time despite some lows after 2016-17 season. But in the period between 2007-08 and 2014-15 remained the high point for Dhoni and India. In these seven years, the Jharkhand man made 5354 runs at 59.48 with 6 hundreds. That rich run can be directly attributed to India's golden time in ODI cricket, a period in which they annexed a T20 World Cup, ICC 50-over World Cup and Champions Trophy besides winning a tri-series in Australia among others.

5. Dhoni the keeper

As a wicketkeeper too Dhoni has contributed brilliantly to India's victories. He has to his credit 401 dismissals in ODIs, 295 catches and 106 stumpings. In fact, he is only the fourth member of the 400-Club along with Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara (482), Australia's Adam Gilchrist (472) and South Africa's Mark Boucher (424).

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