Not too long ago, former Indian skipper, Mahendra Singh Dhoni was being tipped to hang his boots. The 37-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman has shut his critics in style with some brilliant performances in the Indian Premier League and is now continuing his good form for the national side. During the third T20I against England at Bristol, the CSK captain became the first wicketkeeper to take five catches in a T20Is. Dhoni also became the second wicketkeeper after Afghanistan’s Mohammad Shahzad to effect five dismissals in a T20. The Afghan player had achieved this feat in a game against Oman in 2015 where he had picked up 3 catches and effected two stumping.
This was the fourth time when Mahendra Singh Dhoni claimed four or more dismissals in a T20 match. Interestingly, no other wicketkeeper in the world has done it even three times in the shortest format of the game.
During the England innings, Dhoni also became the first keeper to take more than 50 catches in T20s He now has 52 catches to his name in T20Is to go with 33 stumpings in the format,
Dhoni took the catches of Jason Roy, Alex Hales, Eoin Morgan, Jonny Bairstow, Liam Plunkett on Saturday. Apart from the this, he also effected the run out of Chris Jordan on the last ball of the England innings.
Dhoni also holds the record for most sixes scored by a captain along with the record for centuries at number 7 in ODIs.
Asked to bat first in the third and final T20I, England got off to a flying start with the help of a quick-fire half-century from opener Jason Roy who smashed 67 runs from just 31 balls. However, few quick wickets from Hardika Pandya in the later stages of the innings helped visitors restrict England for 198/9.
Rohit Sharma’s well-crafted innings and Hardik Pandya quick cameo helped India chase down the total in the 19thover with 7 wickets remaining.