5 Dhoni moments from the India-New Zealand ODI series

Ever since he retired from the Test format, it has never been easy for Dhoni to come into the team and find his touch straightaway. But to his credit, he has always worked hard on his fitness in the off-season and kept himself fit, ready and raring to go. Overall, Dhoni’s performance in this series can be classified as a ‘mixed bag.’

He finished behind Kohli as India’s second highest run-getter in the series but was far from convincing in most of his stays at the crease. However, he was as agile and brilliant behind the stumps as he ever was - producing several match-turning moments during the course of the series.

We take a look at five such moments or phases in the series, in which Dhoni had a positive or negative influence on the game.

#1 Dhoni’s moment of brilliance – The ‘blind’ runout

Dhoni’s blind run out of Ross Taylor

As a batsman and as a wicketkeeper, Dhoni has always been one who has thrown tradition and convention to the wind while patenting a street-smart method of his own that has achieved unprecedented success in creating dismissals from seemingly non-existent opportunities.

We saw another sample of his brilliance during the 4^th ODI at his home ground, Ranchi. In the 46^th over of the New Zealand innings, Ross Taylor heaved a delivery down the leg side from Umesh Yadav towards Dhawal Kulkarni at fine leg, hoping to run a quick two runs.

Kulkarni returned a weak throw from the deep and Taylor was well on his way to the crease when Dhoni literally pulled a rabbit out of his hat – positioning himself in front of the stumps, he collected the throw high on the bounce and deflected it back to the stumps in one quick motion without even bothering to look behind once – a combination of Dhoni’s brilliant awareness of the stumps and some luck, catching Taylor a few inches short of the crease.

Dhoni’s ‘blind’ run out became the trending talk of the day as its videos and trolls went viral all over social media.

#2 Batting woes – Struggling to get off the blocks

Dhoni struggled with the bat for the most part

Dhoni’s brilliant day behind the stumps at Ranchi did not really translate into his batting during India’s chase of 260. He came out to bat at No.4 to huge roars from his home crowd, at the fall of Kohli’s wicket. However, his turned out to be a laborious stay at the crease.

New Zealand’s spin trio of Sodhi, Santner and Devcich were able to strangle him with a fine display of tight bowling and dry up the runs on a very slow surface. His suffering at the crease, however, ended when he fell to a ball that seamed into his leg stump, from Jimmy Neesham. Dhoni walked back with an embarrassing 11 runs off 31 deliveries to his name.

This was the second time in the series that his troubles with the bat surfaced to deprive India of momentum during a chase. His recent struggles to get off to fluent starts were seen earlier as well.

In a similar scenario during the second ODI at Delhi, India had lost both their openers as well as Kohli early in their chase of 242. Dhoni walked in at the fall of Rahane and played as many as 37 dot balls in his innings of 39 off 65 balls. Though the target was always in sight if wickets were kept in hand and the situation didn’t require taking unnecessary risks, a better-paced innings would have served India better.

A brilliant return catch from Tim Southee off his own bowling dashed all hopes of Dhoni making up for his start, taking the game deep, and finishing it in his trademark fashion.

#3 Cometh the hour, cometh the man

Dhoni led India to victory in the third ODI

The best of Dhoni’s batting in the series was on display in the third ODI at Mohali. India were in deep trouble after losing both their openers cheaply in pursuit of a target of 286. While Kohli was on song that day, India needed someone to stay the distance with him. Considering how Pandey fared in the entire series eventually, it must be considered a brilliant move from Dhoni to have promoted himself to No. 4 in the situation.

The series was level 1-1 and India needed to win this one and keep their noses ahead in the series. So, Dhoni’s experience and calm composure in such crunch situations hand-in-hand with Kohli’s flamboyance was the need of the hour.

Dhoni not just stayed with Kohli, but actually dominated the 151 run partnership for the 3^rd wicket, scoring 80 himself. This was an innings that did not mirror his overall struggles throughout the series.

#4 Lightning-quick gloves

Dhoni was as effective as ever behind the stumps

When it comes to stumpings, there are few parallels to Dhoni. The stumping technique religiously followed over the years by trained wickets keepers is to take the gloves back, allowing the ball to safely nestle into the gloves, and then hit the stumps. While this technique lessens the impact of the ball on the hands and also limits the chances of the ball popping out, this means a few extra milliseconds are lost in this back-lift of the hands - enough for the batsmen to regain their balance.

Dhoni by his unorthodox nature has devised a style of his own. Instead of the traditional technique of ‘collecting’ the ball, Dhoni ‘stops’ the ball just behind the wicket and whips off the bails in a flash at one go – saving precious few milliseconds.

Dhoni gave us a glimpse of his quick glove work during the third ODI at Mohali when he stumped both Ross Taylor and his Kiwi counterpart Luke Ronchi off Mishra’s bowling. On both occasions, when Mishra’s deliveries spun past the batsman’s edge, Dhoni was ready with his gloves right by the stumps, anticipating the opportunity.

#5 Dhoni’s Nayi Soch

Indian players sporting their mothers’ names on their back

Dhoni had his moment off the field of play too. The Indian team stepped out onto the field for the deciding game of the ODI series with a ‘Nayi Soch.’ We’re not talking cricket here. The ‘Nayi Soch’ was an initiative of Star India to commemorate motherhood. In an unprecedented gesture, the Indian players wore special jerseys sporting their mothers’ name during the 5th ODI at Visakhapatnam, as an acknowledgment of their contribution to their growth and success.

At the toss, MSD gave an emotional speech on his thoughts about this novel initiative. “I think it's a brilliant initiative (speaking about the special jersey). Also what's important is that, we are quite used to surname from dad's side, but it’s important to appreciate the contribution of moms. If you ask me, I was always emotionally connected towards my mom. It's just that the mother's contribution often we don't appreciate it the same way,” he said.

“It's something I request and the whole of India should keep in their mind, often we talk about soldiers and get patriotic before the 26th of January and 15th of August. What's important is to get up everyday and thank them for what they have been doing and in the same way the contribution of mom, we need to appreciate it in the same way,” he added.

Dhoni’s respect and admiration for the Indian Army is well known, but it was heartening to see him take this opportunity to give us two good messages.