MS. Dhoni struck his first international hundred against Pakistan at Visakhapatnam; he played a match-winning knock of 148
On this day in 2005, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the wonder boy from Ranchi scored his first century in One-day Internationals against Pakistan at Visakhapatnam. After scoring two cracking hundreds against Pakistan A in a tournament in Nairobi in August 2004, MSD made his way to the national side by making a debut against Bangladesh. His ODI debut was one to forget as he didn’t manage to score a single run before getting run-out by Khaled Mashud.
MS Dhoni marked his arrival in the international circuit in his 5th ODI as he went on to score a swashbuckling 148 off 123 balls that included 15 fours and 4 mighty sixes. After the fall of Tendulkar’s wicket, Dhoni stepped in to bat at No. 3 and built crucial partnerships with Sehwag and Dravid to take India’s total to a mammoth score of 356/9 in 50 overs. In reply to India’s total, Pakistan managed to get 298 before getting all-out and lost the match by 58 runs. Ashish Nehra and Yuvraj Singh led the bowling attack and picked up 4 and 3 wickets respectively. For his match-winning innings, Dhoni has been adjudged the man of the match.
After that knock, the world saw the arrival of a new hero on the block who later changed the dynamics of Indian cricket with his cool and calm approach and helped the Team India to achieve greater heights in future!
