MS Dhoni’s nine-year Test career came to an end on this day nine years ago, on December 30, 2014. The legendary Melbourne Cricket Ground hosted the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2014-15 series in Australia.
MS Dhoni captained his final Test as captain. In the Boxing Day Test in 2014, Australian captain Steve Smith won the toss and chose to bat first.
Steve Smith (192) batted first and hit a stunning century to help his team to a massive first-innings total of 530.
Chris Rogers, Shane Watson, Ryan Harris, and Brad Haddin all chipped in with half-centuries
Mohammed Shami had a four-wicket haul, while Umesh Yadav and Ravichandran Ashwin each had three wickets.
Virat Kohli (169) and Ajinkya Rahane (147) then batted with purpose and scored a high-quality century to enable India to respond strongly in their first innings.
Team India reached 465 thanks to the duo’s and Murali Vijay’s (68) efforts, giving the hosts a 65-run advantage. Dhoni scored 11 (23) in his last Test innings before being removed by Ryan Harris.
Shaun Marsh (99) and Chris Rogers (69) batted strongly in Australia’s second innings, taking them to 318/9 when Steve Smith opted to declare.
India then reached 174/6 in 66 overs on the final day in pursuit of 384 before the two leaders shook hands to conclude the match in a draw with four overs remaining.
MS Dhoni (24*) and Ravichandran Ashwin (8*) led India to a comfortable draw at the close of play.
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A look at MS Dhoni’s Test cricket statistics
MS Dhoni made his Test debut against Sri Lanka in 2005 at Chennai’s Chepauk Stadium. He went on to play 90 Tests, scoring 4876 runs at a 38.09 average, including six hundreds and 33 half-centuries.
His 224 against Australia in the first Test of the BGT 2012-13 series in Chennai remains his best individual score in red-ball cricket.
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