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Dhoni set to join elite 300+league
Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be cynosure of all eyes as he gears up for his 300th ODI with a marauding India ready to tighten the noose around beleaguered Sri Lanka in the penultimate encounter of the five-match series here on Thursday. This will be a good opportunity for the former India captain to come up with a memorable performance in his landmark game since Sri Lanka have hardly posed any sort o
Colombo: Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be cynosure of all eyes as he gears up for his 300th ODI with a marauding India ready to tighten the noose around beleaguered Sri Lanka in the penultimate encounter of the five-match series here on Thursday.
This will be a good opportunity for the former India captain to come up with a memorable performance in his landmark game since Sri Lanka have hardly posed any sort of challenge in the lop-sided series.
Considered one of the greatest finishers in 50-overs cricket, Dhoni will join India's elite 'Club 300', which has Sachin Tendulkar (463), Rahul Dravid (344), Mohammed Azharuddin (334), Sourav Ganguly (311) and Yuvraj Singh (304).
Dhoni has been in good form in the series, having played a significant role in bailing out the team in back-to-back tricky chases following top order batting collapses.
The unbeaten knocks of 45 and 67 under pressure is a proof that he is still not finished and his eyes are firmly set on the 50-over World Cup in 2019.
From being a world class finisher to playing a second fiddle to Rohit Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Dhoni has added another dimension to his game.
Although one can't dismiss the fact that a rag-tag Sri Lankan bowling attack, save mystery spinner Akila Dananjaya, has failed to keep up the pressure on Dhoni and Co. after making initial inroads in the second and third ODIs.
The series already sealed with an unassailable 3-0 lead, captain Virat Kohli's next aim would be to give a chance to players who have only warmed the benches/
This includes Kuldeep Yadav, Manish Pandey, Ajinkya Rahane and Shardul Thakur.Kohli himself had a couple of low scoring games and he would look to get back to scoring some more runs along with KL Rahul, who has not exactly looked comfortable in an unfamiliar No. 4 position.
The only man who would feel a bit of pressure is Kedar Jadhav after successive ducks. More than the two blobs, what will bother the Jadhav is the fact that he has been unable to read Dananjaya's deliveries.
In the first match, he was fooled by a googly and in the second match, he misread the length, trying to go for a sweep shot.
It will be interesting if the team management decides to give Pandey a go ahead instead of Jadhav. The only thing that can save him is his flat off-breaks, which gives Kohli an additional bowling option, having picked up three wickets in the series so far.
