When was the last time MS Dhoni played a Duleep Trophy match?
The first round of the 2024 Duleep Trophy witness two blockbuster matches featuring some of the best names in the country. Much like the future stars, former players also had to mark their presence in the domestic red-ball cricket at various stages of their career, to either get in the first-team or to maintain their position.
The tournament was an excellent opportunity for players to prove themselves to the selectors, and several of them grabbed it with both hands or rather gloves. Wicket-keeper Dhruv Jurel was among the set of players who had a prolific outing in the recently held Duleep Trophy 2024 opening clashes.
The 23-year-old could not make an impression with the bat, scoring only a couple of runs. However, he had a busy time behind the wickets, claiming eight catches in total, seven of them coming in the second innings, where India A bundled out India B for 184 runs.
He managed to equal MS Dhoni's 20-year-old record for most catches in a single innings in a Duleep Trophy match with his exploits in the second innings. The legendary wicket-keeper had set the record in the 2005 Duleep Trophy contest against Central Zone.
MS Dhoni's last appearance in the Duleep Trophy came in the 2005 edition
The iconic cricketer's record display, where he took seven catches in an innings was his penultimate appearance in the competition. He went onto play one more match after that, which turned out to be his last since he soon became involved with the national team across formats.
His final Duleep Trophy match was against the visiting Bangladesh Cricket Board XI from February 22 to 25 in 2005 in Nagpur. Batting at No.3, he scored 51 runs off 71 deliveries as the East Zone put on 454-6 on the board, spurred on by Sourav Ganguly's 170.
In reply, the opposition were bowled out for 142 and 163 in their first and second innings respectively as they lost by a mammoth margin. Dhoni had claimed four catches in the first innings as the bowlers ran riot.
All in all, Dhoni made four appearances in the Duleep Trophy across the 2004 and the 2005 edition. He made his debut in the competition against England A, scoring a fifty while opening the batting in his maiden innings. East Zone progressed into the final that edition, but were defeated by the North Zone on the back of Yuvraj Singh's twin tons.
Dhoni scored a quickfire 60 runs off just 47 deliveries during the run chase, but the East Zone fell 60 runs short of the mammoth 409-run target in Mohali.
MS Dhoni played only two first-class matches after making his Test debut
The exploits in the Duleep Trophy and in the remainder of the domestic circuit led to his Test debut in December 2005 against Sri Lanka. He went onto make 90 appearances in the longest format for the nation, guiding them to the summit of the rankings as skipper too.
Being an all-format captain meant that Dhoni hardly featured in domestic cricket from 2006 onwards. He featured against Victoria in a first-class fixture ahead of the 2008 tour of Australua and in the 2008 Irani Cup for the Rest of India.
However, once he retired from Test cricket in 2013, he returned to the domestic arena to play white-ball cricket. He featured in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and the Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2015, after last featuring in the List-A competition in 2007.