Stats: MS Dhoni overtakes Mohammad Azharuddin, closes in on world record
MS Dhoni’s match-winning 78 and three-wicket hauls for Indian spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav helped India take an unassailable 2-0 lead after beating West Indies by 93 runs in the third ODI at North Sound.
After winning the toss, West Indies elected to bowl. Although Shikhar Dhawan got out early, Ajinkya Rahane brought up another ODI fifty but it was the MS Dhoni show as he showcased his complete array of skills, consolidating in the middle overs before finishing with aplomb and his unbeaten 78 and Kedar Jadhav’s 26-ball 40 helped India post 251/4.
In response, the hosts never quite got going and just kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Although the required run rate never got out of hand, West Indies simply kept losing wickets and were unable to contend with India’s spin duo who picked up six wickets between them in their 20 overs and eventually bowled them out for 158.
Here are some interesting statistical highlights from the third ODI:
4 – MS Dhoni is now the fourth highest run-scorer for India in ODIs. He overtook Mohammad Azharuddin (9,378) and now has 9,442 runs. Among Indians, only Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, and Rahul Dravid have scored more.
70 – Only Shaun Pollock and Chaminda Vaas (both 72) have more not outs in ODIs than MS Dhoni, who now has 70.
0 – No WI bowler has conceded more runs than Kesrick Williams (69) on ODI debut. Mervyn Dillon held the previous record with 68.
1 – Only once (95 against WI in Kingston) has MS Dhoni scored more in an international game in West Indies.
2 – Kuldeep Yadav is only the second Indian bowler after Piyush Chawla to pick up three wickets each in both his first two ODIs.
2 – Ravichandran Ashwin is the second-quickest Indian spinner to 150 ODI wickets. He got to the milestone in his 111th ODI, only Anil Kumble (106) had got to the mark earlier.
3 – Ajinkya Rahane has now three consecutive scores of 50+ in this series. He has scored 237 runs in this series at an average of 79 with two fifties and a century.
4 – Kyle and Shai Hope are the fourth pair of brothers to play for West Indies in ODIs. Dwayne and Darren Bravo, Pedro Collins and Fidel Edwards, Robert and Marlon Samuels were the other three.
5 – MS Dhoni is fifth on the list of most sixes in international cricket. He now has 322 sixes, which is 30 fewer than Sanath Jayasuriya who is in fourth place.
7 – The number of wickets picked up by Indian spinners in the third ODI, which is the most by Indian spinners in an ODI in the West Indies.
8 – From the start of October 2015, Ajinkya Rahane has scored eight fifties in just 17 innings. He also has a century in that period in which he has scored 769 runs at an average of over 45 which is much better than his career ODI average of just under 35.
73 – MS Dhoni now has 73 fifty-plus scores in ODIs, just one behind West Indies’ Desmond Haynes who is 14th on the all-time list of most fifty-plus scores in ODIs.
2015 – Before this match, the last time MS Dhoni won a MOM award was in October 2015.