India versus Pakistan (2005) - Vishakapatnam ODI
19th over...Ganguly departs!
Pakistani pacer Mohammad Sami has just unleashed a jaffa, which sends Sourav Ganguly's stumps cartwheeling. As the boisterous Vizag crowd is lulled into deep silence, Ganguly walks off in a huff, with Pakistan's players resembling a swarm of killer bees, ready to sting India at the word go.
India have slumped to 140 for 3 and Ganguly's dismissal is clear indication that Pakistan have rolled back into the contest.
Earlier, Virender Sehwag had hammered the Pakistani pacers to pulp with a blitzkreig 74, and as Ganguly heads back to the dressing room, an unknown lad from Jharkand walks in and takes guard to bravely face the firing line!
The name is Dhoni...MS Dhoni!
Dhoni destroyed Pakistan in the Vizag ODI!
Most of the Vizag crowd on that fateful day of April 5 must not even have known who the quaint wicket-keeper batsman was, as he jaunts in to face thunder bolts from the Pakistan pace battery.
Faint memories existed of the wavy-haired Dhoni performing poorly in the previous series against a sub-standard Bangladesh, and as Sami steams in full throttle to torpedo another one of his fire-balls...dust spirals ominously around the stadium...with the crowd watching on in anticipation!
Carnage in Vizag!
The crowd witnesses destructive batsmanship at its finest, as Dhoni takes the Pakistani attack by the scruff of their necks and slams them all around the ground.
Cut...Pull..hook...'helicopter'...and what not is exhibited, as Dhoni knocks out the punch-drunk Pakistani pacers in a space of 155 minutes!
Memories arise of Sachin Tendulkar's 'sandstorm' knock in 1998, and as Dhoni does a virtual action-replay in Vizag, Pakistan left wondering what really hit them!
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