Happy birthday to our amazing and aggressive cricketer who is on top of the game. Had we won the Asia cup, it would have been a wonderful birth day celebration for him. Nevertheless he is always special to us and we are sure that he will bring many more victories to team India. We all know his cricketing career - a glimpse of his personal life…..
Dhoni was born in (Almora) Uttarakhand. His paternal village Lvali is in the Lamgarha block of the Almora District of Uttarakhand. Pan Singh and Devaki Dev, Dhoni’s parents, moved from Uttarakhand to Ranchi where Pan Singh worked in junior management positions in Mecon. Dhoni has a sister Jayanti and a brother Narendra. Dhoni had long hair which he has now shortened; he cut it because he wanted to look like his favourite film star John Abraham. Dhoni is a fan of Adam Gilchrist, and his childhood idols were cricket teammate Sachin Tendulkar, Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan and singer Lata Mangeshkar.
Dhoni studied at DAV Jawahar Vidya Mandir, Shyamali, Ranchi, where he initially excelled in badminton and football and was selected at district and club level in these sports. Dhoni was a goalkeeper for his football team and was sent to play cricket for a local cricket club by his football coach. Though he had not played cricket, Dhoni impressed with his wicket-keeping skills and became the regular wicketkeeper at the Commando cricket club (1995 - 1998). Based on his performance at club cricket, he was picked for the 1997/98 season Vinoo Mankad Trophy Under-16 Championship and he performed well. Dhoni focused on cricket after his 10th standard.
Dhoni was voted as MTV Youth Icon 2006 and he also joins cricketers Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar in winning the award. He is the amazing icon of the Pogo TV amazing kids awards.
ODI records:
- On 31 October 2005 Dhoni scored 183* runs of just 145 balls against Sri Lanka in Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur. The following is the list of records created during the innings.
- The score of 183 is the highest in ODI cricket in the second innings (Earlier record: 153 by Lara). During the epic Aus-SA 2006 match, Herschelle Gibbs came close to the record by scoring 175.
- The innings featured 10 Sixes, the most by an Indian in an Innings, and the second highest in ODI cricket (The highest is 11 by Sanath Jayasuriya and Shahid Afridi)
- He broke Adam Gilchrist’s record of 172 for the highest score made by a wicket keeper
- The innings set the record for the most number of runs scored in boundaries (120 - 15×4; 10×6) breaking the record held by Saeed Anwar. The record was broken by Herschelle Gibbs (126 runs in boundaries - 21×4; 7×6) against Australia during his knock of 175.
- In the same match, Kumar Sangakkara also made a century, making it the first match in which both wicket keepers scored a century
- The score of 183 equaled the record of the highest score against Sri Lanka in ODI cricket set by Ganguly during the 1999 Cricket World Cup.
- Among Indian batsmen who have played more than 50 matches, Dhoni has the second highest average. Dhoni’s batting average is the highest amongst wicketkeeper in ODIs.
- In April 2006 Dhoni was briefly ranked No.1 in the ICC one day Batsmen’s ratings.
- In June 2007, Dhoni(139*) and Mahela Jayawardene(107) set a new world record for the sixth wicket partnership of 218 runs against Africa XI during the Afro-Asia Cup.
- Dhoni erased Shaun Pollock’s record for highest individual innings by a number seven batsman in one-day internationals during his unbeaten innings of 139. Incidentally, Pollock record stood for just three days as his score of 130 came in the first match of the 2007 Afro-Asia Cup while Dhoni’s century came in the third and final match of the series.
- Dhoni also holds the records of the most dismissals by an Indian wicketkeeper and joint International (with Adam Gilchrist) with 6 dismissals (5 catches and one stumping) against England at Headlingly 2 September 2007.
Test records:
- Dhoni’s maiden century against Pakistan in Faisalabad (148) is the fastest century scored by an Indian wicket keeper. Only three centuries by two players (Kamran Akmal and Adam Gilchrist - 2) were faster than Dhoni’s 93 ball century.
