Hamilton: In a moving gesture, Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Sunday showed how dear was the Indian flag to him after one of his countless fans trespassed on to the ground during the third T20 International against New Zealand here.
Dhoni’s delirious fan, who was holding the Indian tri-colour, breached the security and rushed towards the former Indian captain to touch his feet. Running high on emotions, the trespasser was able to touch Dhoni’s feet but in doing that, the Indian flag in his right hand brushed the ground. Just like his lightning-quick stumping, Dhoni spotted that and grabbed the flag from the fan.
Respect for ms dhoni from national flag #Dhoni #icc #IndianAirForce #NarendraModi pic.twitter.com/HrlaaNpx7m
— Rakesh (@Rakesh58415969) February 11, 2019
#MSDhoni not letting the #India flag touch the ground !! #DhoniAgain !!
— (@OfficialSukesh) February 11, 2019
MS Dhoni takes away the National Flag from a fan when he tries to touch his feet PATRIOTISM AT IT’S BEST pic.twitter.com/Rov9v8RfrA
— Arvind Bishnoi (@Arvbishnoi29) February 10, 2019
RESPECT for MS DHONI just keeps going up and up!!
What a Man, What a LEGEND!
A fan breached the security to meet dhoni
Fan dropped the Indian flag on ground ms dhoni picked the flag
Nation first #MSDhoni #Dhoni300 #INDvsNZ@BleedDhonism @msdhoni pic.twitter.com/pa7JwOmObg— Dipenahir45 (@imdahir) February 10, 2019
10th February 2019 — The first innings of the decider match between India and NZ is in progress, a fan breaks the chains of security and rushes to touch the feet of MS Dhoni, accidentally dropping the Tiranga on ground, Dhoni picks the flag & then courteously taps the fans back. pic.twitter.com/oWQMi69zIj
— MS Dhoni Anecdotes. (@DhoniAnecdotes) February 10, 2019
The incident took place during the New Zealand innings which ended at 212. India fought hard but lost the game by four runs and thus the series 1-2. While Dhoni was exceptional behind the stumps as usual, he scored just two runs though. However, he has been in good touch of late.
The game was also Dhoni’s 300th in the shortest format, including the 199 IPL games he has featured so far. He has played in 96 T20 Internationals, scoring 1548 runs at an average of 36.85. Dhoni also has 56 catches and 34 stumpings to his name.