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Mahendra Singh Dhoni became the 15th Indian bowler to take a wicket in the very first over in limited overs international cricket.

The Indian skipper who kept wickets in 144 previous one day internationals, came to bowl for the first time in the final league match of the Champions Trophy against West Indies at New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg on Wednesday (September 30).

Dhoni decided to have some fun. Before the start of the 17th over, he gave his keeping gloves to Dinesh Karthik, and decided to bowl, something he does to good effect in the nets.

The first two balls Dhoni bowled were long hops, and were duly pulled and cut for boundaries by Travis Dowlin. The fourth ball, though, was fuller, and took the inside edge onto the stumps. And everybody had a bit of a laugh. Dhoni then proceeded to merrily seam his way through one more over, and also had a difficult edge dropped by Karthik.

The first Indian bowler to claim a wicket in his very first over in a limited overs international match was Rohan’s father, Sunil Gavaskar. Gavaskar achieved this feat by dismissing one of the greatest one day player Zaheer Abbass, on the fifth ball of his first over, caught by Kapil Dev in the deep, at Sialkot on October 13,1978. It was Gavaskar’s sixth match in instant cricket and incidentlly it was the only wicket for the little master.

Rajinder Singh Ghai who played six limited overs international matches for India was the second to take a wicket in his first over. He achieved this feat on his debut by dismissing English opener Tim Robinson, leg before, on the fifth ball at Pune on December 5,1984. Ghai could claim only two wickets in his next five matches.

Part time bowler Wookeri Raman was the third Indian to capture a wicket in his very first over. The slow left-arm bowler performed this feat by bowling out West Indian opening batsman Desmond Haynes on the third ball of his first over in his second one-day international match at Rajkot on January 5,1988.

Medium pace bowler, Atul Wassan is the only Indian who claimed two wickets in his first over. He achieved this feat on debut against New Zealand by dismissing John Wright, caught by Kapil Dev and Andrew Jones, leg before on the fourth and fifth ball of this first over at Dunedin on March 1,1990.

Sanjay Manjrekar was the fifth Indian bowler who claimed a wicket in the very first over in one-dayers.

Manjrekar who was invited by skipper Mohammed Azharuddin for the first time in his 30th match when Australia required only two runs to victory, dismissed Dean Jones, caught by Sachin Tendulkar, on the second ball at Hobart on December 10,1991. It was his only wicket in one-day international matches.

After Manjrekar another part time bowler Vinod Kambli joined this club. Kambli took the wicket of New Zealand tail-ender Simmon Doull, stumped by Vijay Yadav on the fourth ball of his first over in one-dayers at Delhi on November 3,1994. It was the only occasion when Kambli was invited to bowl some off breaks in the 49th match of his 104-match career.

Bombay’s medium pacer Paras Mhambrey was the seventh Indian to claim a wicket in his very first over in one-day internationals.

Mhambrey achieved this feat on his debut by taking the wicket of England’s middle-order batsman Niel Smith, caught by Tendulkar, on the fifth ball of his first over in international cricket at The Oval on May 23,1996.

In the match between India and Pakistan played at Toronto on September 13,1997, Debutant medium pacer Debasis Mohanty claimed the wicket on the fifth ball of his first over by bowling out Pakistani opening batsman Saeed Anwar.

Exactly one year later at the same ground and against the same opponent, another medium fast bowler, Sanjay Raul joined this elite club by dismissing Pakistan’s middle order batsman Inzamam-ul-Haq, caught by Venkatesh Prasad, on the fifth ball of his first over.

Sadagoppan Ramesh is the only Indian bowler who has claimed a wicket on his very first ball in limited overs international cricket.

Playing in his 15th one-day international match against West Indies at Singapore on September 5,1999 and bowling, off spin, for the first time in his career, Ramesh claim the wicket of West Indian lower-order batsman Nixon McLean, caught by Debasis Mohanty, off the very first ball to become the first Indian and sixth bowler in one-day internationals to do so.

Interestingly Ramesh had never before captured a single wicket in his 39 first class matches or in any of his domestic one-day matches.

Left-arm medium pacer Ashish Nehra was the 11th Indian to take a wicket in his very first over. He did the same by dismissing Zimbabwean opening batsman, Alistair Campbell, caught by wicket-keeper Sameer Dighe, on the second ball of his first over in his first one-day international match at Harare on June 24,2001.

All-rounder Sanjay Bangar joined this elite club by claiming the wicket of Nasser Hussain, caught by Harbhajan Singh on the second ball of his first overs in the first one-day international against England at Chennai on January 25.2001.

Medium pace bowler Aavishkar Salvi who made his debut in international cricket in the first match of the three- nation TVS Cup against hosts Bangladesh at National Stadium Dhaka on April 11,2003 was the 13th Indian bowler to take a wicket in his first over in limited overs international cricket. The right-arm bowler from Mumbai achieved this feat by dismissing Bangladesh’s opening batsman Mehrab Hussain, leg before, on the fifth ball of his first over.

Slow left arm spinner, Rohan Gavaskar who made his debut in international cricket in the fifth match of the VB series against Australia at Brisbane on January 18, 2004, was last Indian bowler before Mahendra Singh Dhoni to take a wicket in very first over in limited overs international match.

Little master Sunil Gavskar’s son achieved this feat by picking up the important wicket of Andrew Symonds, diving to his right to take s difficult caught and bowled chance off the fifth ball of the first over which was the 23rd of the Australian innings.