During the fourth ODI of the recent bilateral series between India and West Indies, M. S. Dhoni scored a painful 54 runs from 114 balls, at a strike rate of 47.36, which would have been considered a crawl in any era of ODI cricket. India was chasing a meagre target of 190 runs, but with Dhoni getting out in the 49th over of the chase, India went on to lose the game by 11 runs. There is a stark difference between Dhoni’s batting statistics in wins and losses. While Dhoni has the highest batting average in ODI history in wins (min. 5000 runs), his batting average in losses is about 40 runs worse than his average in wins, and his strike rate also drops by about 25 runs (per 100 balls) in losses. It is almost indisputable that while Dhoni’s method of taking games deep has won India numerous games, this has also resulted in a few losses, like this game against West Indies.
Dhoni’s ODI batting statistics in wins and losses
The sluggishness of Dhoni’s innings is clearly illustrated by the fact that it is among the five slowest ODI innings, by any batsman, in the last five years (min. 100 balls). Interestingly, three of these five slowest innings have come in the West Indies, at Providence, Gros Islet and now North Sound.
Slowest ODI Innings in the last 5 years (min. 100 balls)
Dhoni’s innings of 114 balls included just a solitary boundary, a four off Roston Chase very late in the innings. There have only been a couple of innings by Indian batsmen where they have played 100-plus balls without a single boundary, with the last of those coming almost 35 years ago. Dhoni almost made this the third such instance.
ODI Innings by Indian batsman without a boundary (min. 100 balls)
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