MS Dhoni will equal Saurav Ganguly's record during the 2nd ODI against Sri Lanka

MS Dhoni yet again delivered for India in dying circumstances during the first ODI against Sri Lanka but he couldn’t stop the Lankans from taking a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. The Sri Lankan seamers were too hot to handle after newly appointed skipper Thisara Parera won the toss and decided to have a go at the Indian batsmen.

Suranga Lakmal especially was absolutely spot on with his line and length during his 10-over spell and was done with it in the first 20 overs itself. He picked up 4 wickets which didn’t allow Indians to settle and prevented them from posting a good score. The Sri Lankan batsmen chased down the target in just 20.4 overs with the help of former skipper Upul Tharanga’s 49. India did manage to get wickets early but the target was too small to defend.

The same saviour again

It was MS Dhoni who saved India from embarrassment as the wicketkeeper-batsman scored a fighting 65 runs in India’s total of 112. During the knock, he also scored his 16000th runs in international cricket and is just 109 runs away from entering the elite 10000 ODI runs club. The 36-year-old Dhoni hit his 67th half-century in the One-Day Internationals. This was the 310th ODI game of his career. He has played 307 for India and 3 games for Asia XI.

The second game starts on Wednesday which will be played in Mohali. When Dhoni takes the field for the game, he will equal the record of former Indian captain Saurav Ganguly who played 311 ODIs in his career. Apart from Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, and Mohammad Azharuddin are the only Indian players who have played more games than Dhoni.

The wicketkeeper-batsman holds the record for captaining India in more matches than anyone else. He led the side in 199 games while Azharduddin and Ganguly captained in 174 and 146 games respectively. Dhoni possesses the highest win percentage among the three as well in the ODIs.

Most ODIs for India: