MS Dhoni registers maiden T20I fifty during India-England 3rd T20I

During his knock, Dhoni scored most of his runs against Ben Stokes by hitting him 18 runs, which including all his 3 boundaries.

MS Dhoni scored his maiden T20I fifty during the third match of the series between India and England at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. Dhoni came to bat at No. 4 after India lost their second wicket at the score on 65 in the 8th over. Dhoni coming up in the order was a bit of surprise. From there Dhoni along with Suresh Raina — one of India’s greatest in 20-over cricket — added 55 runs for third wicket stand off just 26 balls. Dhoni contributed 21 in that partnership. He was simply warming up before the main onslaught would begin.

After the fall of Raina’s wicket, Dhoni continued his batting with Yuvraj Singh and started building another crucial partnership. In between Dhoni had hit 3 boundaries and 2 sixes. Dhoni has been playing T20Is for India since they played their first T20I in 2006, but it took him 76th matches to get his first fifty in the format. Curiously, he averages above 35 with bat. Before this fifty, Dhoni’s previous best in T20Is was 48 not out, against Australia in 2012. Also, Dhoni averages above 50 at Bengaluru in T20s. Dhoni also completed 5,000 runs in T20s.

During his knock, Dhoni scored most of his runs against Ben Stokes by hitting him 18 runs, which including all his 3 boundaries. Besides Stokes, he also had a go at Liam Plunkett, taking 11 off his 5 deliveries, while he got 8 off 3 from Adil Rashid. Till today Dhoni was the first cricketer to have scored 1,000 runs without any fifty. The record now passes on to Kevin O’Brien, who has 683 runs with a highest score of 42 not out.