MS Dhoni finishes off in style for a record fifth time in T20Is

Veteran Indian wicketkeeper-batsman MS Dhoni entered the record books yet again when he hammered a six off the final ball of the innings in the Cuttack T20I against Sri Lanka. Dhoni became the first batsman in the history of T20Is to hit a six off the final ball of the innings on five occasions. Interestingly, there is no other player in the league of Dhoni as of now.

There has been no other cricketer who has managed to do this on four occasions, or in fact on three occasions either. There are four other cricketers who have hit a six off the final ball of the innings on two occasions each. Sri Lanka’s Angelo Mathews, Bangladesh’s Mashrafe Mortaza, Afghanistan’s Shafiqullah, and New Zealand’s Nathan McCullum have done it twice.

Needless to concede, MS Dhoni is a cut above the rest when it comes to the six hitting. He is regarded as one of the finest hitters of the cricket ball. Also, he is often hailed as one of the best finishers the game has ever since. These numbers only validate his domination when it comes to finishing of the innings.

Hitting SIX on the final ball of the 20th over in T20Is:

5 times – MS DHONI
2 times – A Mathews / M Mortaza / Shafiqullah / N McCullum#INDvSL

— Sampath Bandarupalli (@SampathStats) December 20, 2017

The iconic voice of Ravi Shastri commentating ‘Dhoni finishes off in style’ seems to be becoming a regularity with the powerful man from Ranchi hitting sixes at will. He has made it a habit to finish games in his desired way. While he has done this in T20Is on 5 occasions, he has the distinction of doing similar thing in the ODI format as well.

Innings at Cuttack

Talking about the knock that he played in the first T20I against Sri Lanka at Cuttack, MS Dhoni finished with an unbeaten 39 off 22 balls. He hit four boundaries and a six during his stay at the crease. En route his whirlwind cameo, Dhoni added 68 runs with Manish Pandey for the fourth wicket. Their partnership propelled India’s total to 180/3 in the stipulated 20 overs.

Here is a look at the numbers: