South African cricket legend AB de Villiers commemorated former India captain MS Dhoni’s 44th birthday by remembering him as an intimidating opponent with a remarkable career.MS Dhoni’s international cricket journey was marked by his captaincy success in winning three major ICC tournaments – the 2007 T20 World Cup, 2011 ODI World Cup, and 2013 Champions Trophy, alongside various bilateral and continental achievements.
“It was very difficult to plan for MS Dhoni. When he was on song, nothing worked. Later on, we discovered that sometimes you could get away with wide deliveries with the seam, especially in the back end of his innings. We tried it. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t,” De Villiers said on JioHotstar’s ‘7 Shades of MS Dhoni’.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!“The guy’s class – not many game plans worked against him. I have a lot of respect for him and his achievements throughout his career. He was definitely an intimidating player to play against. What a fantastic career he had.”Former India selector and cricketer Kiran More shared his initial impressions of Dhoni, noting the unique spark he saw in the wicketkeeper-batsman.“At that time, if you looked at our batting order, you had Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman – all these players. Yuvraj Singh was also there. But I felt we needed an aggressive player, who could come and hit fours and sixes, utilise the Powerplay, make runs in 15 overs, and also in the middle overs,” he added.“We were looking for someone who could hit sixes and boundaries — that kind of aggressive player wasn’t visible. See, the top players were all of one mold. But MS Dhoni’s strength — that power-hitting — we were looking for a different kind of player like that, to balance the batting order.
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“If you want to make 100 in 10 overs, you can. We gave many wicketkeepers chances, but the spark we saw in Dhoni — I felt this boy is something special, something different. We were taking chances. He was raw. From there, we picked him and gave him a chance.”Dhoni was recently inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame alongside Hashim Amla, Matthew Hayden, Graeme Smith, Daniel Vettori, Sana Mir, and Sarah Taylor.His international career statistics show 17,266 runs across formats, 829 dismissals as wicketkeeper, and 538 international matches played.“It is an honour to be named in the ICC Hall of Fame, which recognises the contributions of cricketers across generations and from all over the world. To have your name remembered alongside such all-time greats is a wonderful feeling. It is something that I will cherish forever,” Dhoni remarked on achieving this feat.Although retired from international cricket, Dhoni continues to play in the Indian Premier League with Chennai Super Kings, leading them to five titles.
