On this day in 2005, Mahendra Singh Dhoni smashed his first international ton

Dhoni achieved the feat during the second ODI of the six-match series against India`s arch-rivals Pakistan in Visakhapatnam.

On April 4 in 2005, former Indian skipper and wicketkeeper-batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni smashed his first century in the international cricket.

Dhoni achieved the feat during the second One-Day International (ODI) of the six-match series against India's arch-rivals Pakistan at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam.

India won the toss and opted to bat fist in the match.

After the Men in Blue lost the then opener and legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar cheaply for two runs, MS Dhoni came to bat for India and joined forces with Virender Sehwag.

Coming to bat at No.3 position, Dhoni first stitched more than 100-run partnership with Sehwag (74) before smashing his first international century of his cricketing career. 

The wicketkeeper-batsman also shared a huge 149-run stand with Rahul Dravid (52) before being eventually dismissed after scoring a blistering knock of 148 runs off just 123 balls.

En route to his impressive knock, Dhoni also hammered 15 boundaries and four sixes as India posted a total of 356 for nine in their stipulated 50 overs.

For Pakistan, Naved-ul-Hasan bagged three wickets while Arshad Khan and Mohammad Hafeez claimed two wickets each.Mohammad Sami also chipped in with a wicket.

In reply, Mohammad Yusuf (71), Abdul Razzaq (88) and Kamran Akmal's (41) notable contributions with the bat went in vain as Pakistan were bundled out for 298 in 44.1 overs.

Ashish Nehra was the pick of the bowlers for India with figures of four for 72, followed by Yuvraj Singh's figures of three for 55.

Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh also chipped in with a wicket each.

Dhoni was adjudged 'Man of the Match' for his match-winning knock. 

Notably, Dhoni remains the only captain to win all the major ICC trophies namely 50-over World Cup, T20 World Cup, and Champions Trophy. 

Dhoni, who has not featured for India since ICC World Cup 2019 that ended in July 2019, was all set to make a return as a captain of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which was originally slated to take place from March 29 to May 24. 

However, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to postpone the IPL till April 15 due to coronavirus pandemic.