The legend of Mahendra Singh Dhoni just keeps growing.
On Thursday August 31,2017, the former India captain is set to play his 300th ODI match, as visitors take on Sri Lanka in their fourth match of the limited-overs' series at R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo.
The 36-year-old became a topic of intense debate as Virat Kohli's India prepares for next year's World Cup in England. But like 'old wine', Dhoni continued to defied odds and kept producing match winning knocks. Yes, there were instances of failure, but nobody, except few detractors, were ready to forshake their trust in India's most successful captain ever.
And on Thursday (August 31), he will become the latest player to join the 300-ODI match club. Batting greats Sachin Tendulkar (363) leads the all-time list, which also has Rahul Dravid (344), Mohammad Azharuddin (334), Sourav Ganguly (311) and Yuvraj Singh (302).
Here's all the numbers and facts we you need to know about one of India's most beloved sportstars in his favourite format.
1. In 299 matches so far, Dhoni has scored 9608 at an average of 51.93 with 10 hundreds and 65 fifties.
2. His highest score is an unbeaten 183 against Sri Lanka at Jaipur on October 31, 2005.
3. Dhoni made his India debut in an ODI match against Bangladesh at Chittagong on December 23, 2004. He scored a golden duck in that match.
4. He is now the fourth highest run scorer in ODIs for India, behind Tendulkar (18426), Ganguly (11221) and Dravid (10768).
5. Dhoni has record 40 unbeaten innings in successful ODI chases, thus confirming his claim to the 'best finisher' fame.
6. He shares the record for most not-outs in ODIs with Chaminda Vaas and Shaun Pollock at 72.
7. Being the greatest finisher needed sixes, and he has is only the fifth batsman to hit 200+ sixes in ODIs. His 203 is behind Shahid Afridi's 351, Sanath Jayasuria's 270 and Chris Gayle's 238.
8. He is the only batsman to have an average of over 100 in successful ODI chases among all players with at least 1000 runs. He now has 101.84.
9. He has the most runs (3738) in ODI history when batting at number 6.
10. He has 18 50s, which is the joint most number of fifties by a wicket-keeper against an opposition in ODIs. Strangely, Sangakkara also has 18 50s against India.
11. Behind the wickets, 99 ODI stumpings to his name, which is joint most with Kumar Sangakkara.
Yes, he hit that famous six at the Wankhede Stadium to help India lift the ICC World Cup in 2011. That's one fact, we all know. But these numbers truely reflect who Dhoni is, and why he is revered as the greatest finisher
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