Michael Vaughn lauds MS Dhoni on double-century

Former England captain Michael Vaughn lauded Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Sunday for his performance against Australia on the third day of the first cricket Test match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

Dhoni scored an unbeaten 206 to take India to 515/8, to give the hosts a lead of 135 runs with two days left in the match. During his innings, which included 22 boundaries and five massive sixes, he scored at a strike rate of 84.77.

“The coolest man in world cricket MS Dhoni delivers when it most matters… Incredible innings against the Aussies… #Dhoni,” tweeted Vaughan.

In the process, Dhoni also crossed the 4,000-run mark in Test cricket. He also has the highest individual score by an Indian wicketkeeper-batsman when he surpassed Budhi Kunderan‘s 192.

Legendary spinner Shane Warne was also impressed by Dhoni’s knock.

“WOW, MS Dhoni is going off here in Chennai, amazing batting,” tweeted Warne.

Busy Mahendra Singh Dhoni fails to appear for B.Com Exam

A busy cricketing schedule has led to Indian team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni failing to even appear in the first semester examination of B Com degree after enrolling himself for the course five years ago at a city college.

Dhoni, who enrolled in B. Com in 2008 at St Xavier’s College here, could not clear even one of his six semesters, “absenting” from examinations due to busy cricketing schedule, and his results in the first semester had been marked as absent.

“Yes, he (Dhoni) would have been among the students who got the degrees,” Principal Nicholas Tete said, after giving away degrees to 1,790 students of his St Xavier’s College on the occasion of the fourth Graduation Ceremony here yesterday.

“Dhoni registered for the three-year course in 2008, which is effective for five years. And he can renew afresh, (if he wants to complete the course),” Tete told PTI here today.

“We had prepared study material for his first semester and sent them to him. (But) he did not respond,” he said.

Dhoni, who has Office Administration and Secretarial Practice as his subjects in B. Com, had completed Plus-II in 1999.

“A teacher feels good giving away degrees to successful students, and the students feel happy after completing a course successfully,” Dean Jayant Sinha, one of the teachers in the college, said, adding happiness would have been doubled had Dhoni completed the course and got the degree.

“However, he can complete the course in future. Education is a continuing process,” Sinha said.

The degrees were given to the batch of 2008-11, when Dhoni had registered for the course, he added.

Dhoni Asks media Not to Put Pressure on Sachin for Big Century

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni asked the media not to put any pressure on Sachin Tendulkar for his 100th international century which was “around the corner”. Peoples’ expectations from him are as high as Mount Everest, Dhoni said adding that the media was also putting pressure on him.

“We are not under pressure as a team. The media are putting pressure on him. Let him score his hundred and he will do at some point of time. He is pretty good at doing that and he will do it. Let him score the hundred without pressure,” Dhoni said at the post-match press conference.

“If you are talking about the gentleman, expectations from him by the people has been high as (Mount) Everest. Since his second year in international cricket he has been the star. When he goes to a cricket field and score 50, people say he had not scored runs and it has been like this each and every day”, Dhoni said.

“And what we have seen is that any individual, when he reaches a milestone, he may take a little bit longer time than usual. But I think it’s around the corner. We have to wait and see,” he added.

Tendulkar looked like finally getting the feat on the fourth day of the first Test against the West Indies at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium but fell short by 24 runs and Dhoni said the team was not perturbed by the veteran batsman not being able to do it.

West Indies captain Darren Sammy said he would be happy for Tendulkar to score his 100th international ton, but not against his side.

“As I have said, we admire Tendulkar, he is a great cricketer. But I would want Tendulkar to score his hundred against Australia. I would want to watch it and enjoy and not when playing against him,” he said.

Related articles

• Tendulkar falls short in chase for 100th international century (cnn.com)
• Sachin Tendulkar still waiting for 100th century as India seal victory (guardian.co.uk)
• Sachin Tendulkar’s wait for 100th century continues (independent.co.uk)