WATCH: On this Day MS Dhoni Scored his Maiden ODI Century

This day (April 5) is special for India’s former skipper MS Dhoni. On April 5, 2005, MS played a memorable inning against Pakistan which announced his arrival in the game of cricket.?

Mahi smashed 148 runs against Pakistan and India won the match by 58 runs to take a lead of 2-0 in the series. This was the first time when he got a chance to prove himself as a batsman in front of the world. Innings played by MS before this was not very impressive as his score was 0, 12, 7* and 3. Also, he was batting much below in the order which provided him with fewer opportunities.?

However, in this particular match, Saurav Ganguly, the then captain of India decided to change the order of batting. Instead of himself, he offered MS Dhoni to bat at number 3. Not disappointing his captain, MS scored his maiden ODI century.?

Here’s the video of the terrific knock by MS Dhoni:

An insight into MS Dhoni’s innings

Dhoni?s innings wasn’t very smooth and terrific from the start. He started cautiously as there was Sehwag on the other side who was set as the opening batsman. Dhoni came on the field after Sachin Tendulkar got at 2 runs.?

Dhoni and Sehwag built a strong partnership of 96 runs which brought India back in the game. However, things went for a toss after Sehwag lost his wicket in the 14th over. The upcoming batsman was Ganguly but he also couldn’t do much and retired to the dressing room early. Not losing hope, Dhoni and Rahul Dravid came together for a partnership of 149 runs which helped India in putting up a total of 356 on the board.

Mahi brought his century in 88 balls. In his innings, he hit 4 six and 15 boundaries and his score of 148 became the second-highest score by an Indian wicket-keeper in the 50-over format.?

For his sensational knock, MS was awarded as the man of the match. It remains one of the best innings of MS Dhoni to date.?