MS Dhoni completes 300 catches in ODI; joins a special club

Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni completed his 300th ODI catch when he caught Jos Buttler of Umesh Yadav's bowling in the second ODI between India and England at Lord's.

That catch means Dhoni is now only the fourth player to have completed 300 catches in ODI. He achieved this feat in 320nd match.

The other three ahead of him are Adam Gilchrist, Mark Boucher and Kumar Sangakkara. Gilchrist leads the way with an astonishing 417 catches, followed by Boucher, who had taken 402 catches, and Sangakkara, who managed 383 catches.
 

The tour of England is proving to be fruitful for Dhoni, In the recently concluded T20I series, which India won 2-1, Dhoni played his 500th international match. The 2011 World Cup captain became only the third Indian player to achieve this feat after Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid when he featured in the second T20I.

Overall, Dhoni is eighth player to rack up this number. The other seven include Sachin and Dravid from India, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Sanath Jayasuriya from Sri Lanka, Shahid Afridi from Pakistan and Jacques Kallis from South Africa.

Also, in the third T20I, Dhoni became the first ever wicketkeeper to take five catches in a T20I innings. Three of the catches were of Hardik Pandya's bowling, while there was one each of Deepak Chahar and Siddharth Kaul.

This wasn't the record he achieved during that game. Dhoni also became the first wicketkeeper to take 50+ catches in T20I cricket. He has now 54 catches, which is 20 more than Denesh Ramdin, who stands second in the list with 34 catches.

It will also the fourth instance when Mahendra Singh Dhoni has claimed four or more dismissals in a match. In comparison, no other keeper has managed to achieve this even three times in T20I cricket.

While his glove work earned him a new achievement, his batting didn't match it. Dhoni was criticized by fans for his slow knock as India lost the second ODI.