Thread by @Mykuhl

Somehow an Indian fan managed to find a way to make England vs Ireland into further evidence of the greatness of MS Dhoni.

In the only ODI match that Billings and Dhoni have been on the same field for, Dhoni played a "mature" "anchoring" innings of 25(36) when India were chasing 322. India fell 5 runs short.

After people telling me that I'm wrong and that Dhoni is an expert in chasing in English conditions, I looked into the numbers.

Some fans are not going to like me for doing this....

In the 9 matches where Dhoni has batted in a run chase in England, India have only won 2.

In all 9 he's scored at lower than the required rate when he arrived at the crease, putting pressure on the guy at the other end.

In the 2 India won, he scored:
35 (37) - India needed 101 (85) - 20% slower than required.
34(46) - India needed 89 (111) - just 8% slower than required.

In the one match where he was not out he scored 42 (31) his highest strike rate chasing in Eng, but India needed 112 (65).

In that match he scored at 78% of the required rate. That was the closest he got to the required rate in any of the other matches.

In the other matches he scored at less than 67% of the required rate.

Here's his % of balls remaining when used vs % of runs required contributed from when he arrived in the crease - this is including the matches India won:

Balls % used - Runs % contributed
26 - 7
18 - 10
44 - 35 win
25 - 14
7 - 1
43 - 20
41 - 38 win
48 - 38
44 - 30

Now it's unfair to blame Dhoni for losing those matches, and I'm not doing that.

There were a couple of them that the game was too far gone when he arrived to expect a win. But in 7 of the 9 matches the target was difficult but obtainable.

Dhoni is an excellent batsman, and has done well in ODI chases, but I'd suggest that Billings' experience playing white ball cricket in England for 9 years had more to do with his success than some conversations he had with MS Dhoni while they were training for some T20 matches.