Mahendra Singh Dhoni pulled out a familiar trick from his bag of magical wicketkeeping to effect a run out that dismissed the dangerous Glenn Maxwell in the third ODI between India and Australia in Ranchi.
Glenn Maxwell was batting on 47 runs off 31 balls and was threatening to take the match away from the Indians with his destructive strokeplay when Dhoni ran him out off the last ball of the 42nd over. Kuldeep Yadav was bowling the last ball of his 9th over when Shaun Marsh slapped the ball to Ravindra Jadeja at cover and looked to steal a single. Jadeja fired in a throw which Dhoni nonchalantly redirected towards the stumps. The decision was referred to the third umpire and television replays showed the Aussie right-hander to be short of his crease.
It was a stunning run out as Dhoni redirected the ball mid-flight without even collecting. Had he collected the ball, Maxwell may have made it home safely. Twitter naturally went crazy and hailed Dhoni's brilliance.
Ravindra Jadeja's bullet-arm throw on target and Dhoni's Lightning Fast Hands..⚡? #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/gRXUulH5FF
— Satyam Singh (@MyFreakyTweets) March 8, 2019
Only #MSDhoni could have done it. Great from Jadeja too. He adds a lot of value as a fielder. Dhoni is just too street smart and pulls out these gems from his bag of tricks every now and then. #INDvAUS #INDvsAUS
— Gaurav Gupta (@its_me_anshul) March 8, 2019
3G, 4G, 5G Is One Side .
— কংকন শৰ্মা (@imKangkanSarma) March 8, 2019
And MS Dhoni Ji Is One Side.
No One Company Can Make This (Dhoni G) Fastest Product.@ikpsgill1 #AUSvIND #MSDhoni #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/3LhDr4tMah
The calculation that happened @msdhoni head to run out @Gmaxi_32 is mind blowing. And utter nonchalance after this mind boggling feat!#INDvAUS #genius
— Gautham Krishna (@krish_gautham) March 8, 2019
MSD is out of this world! Wow. I bet nobody would have completed that runout. Atleast nobody human. The speed of thinking was remarkable. Would have lost valuable seconds if he had tried to gather that throw. #Dhoni #INDvAUS
— Angad Kapoor (@AngadKapoor2) March 8, 2019
Dhoni's run out of Maxwell completely turned the game around as Kuldeep Yadav came back in his next over to remove Marsh and then Peter Handscomb for a duck. Suddenly from two wickets down to losing three quick wickets, the initiative of the match has shifted from Australia.
Earlier in the day, Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to field first. The Australian openers made a fantastic start as skipper Aaron Finch scored 93 and his partner Usman Khawaja scored a century. It was a special occasion for India as the team decided to pay a special tribute to the martyrs of the Pulwama terror attack by wearing army camouflage caps.
"This is to pay respects to the martyrs of the Pulwama attack and their families. All the players in the team have decided to donate their match fees of this particular game to the National Defence Fund."
