He did, however, get extremely displeased on a few occasions, something not expected of a cricketer who can magically keep calm even during the most stressful death overs. Here we look at some of those instances.

1. When umpire Daryl Harper’s strict action against Praveen Kumar in 2011 did not go down well with MS Dhoni.

India were playing against West Indies when the umpire, known for his harsh calls against the Indians, ruled that Praveen Kumar would not be bowling for the remainder of the innings as he ran down the pitch to the protected area quite a few number of times.

This made Dhoni really angry and he is reported to have told Harper, “We’ve had trouble with you before, Harper”. Later, in the press conference, Dhoni said:

If the correct decisions were made the game would have finished much earlier and I would have been in the hotel by now.

To which Harper later replied:

It’s true… but they would have been back earlier if the Indian fieldsmen had taken their catches as well. 

2. When MS Dhoni got on the field to argue with the umpire in a rare show of aggression in IPL 2019.

CSK and close finishes are inseparable, and in one such instance during the IPL 2019, we saw Dhoni losing his cool. Playing against Rajasthan Royals, Dhoni got out to a Ben Stokes delivery in the final over. And right after that, the umpires on the field had some scepticism over a no-ball. 

Refusing to watch this from the stands, Dhoni got on the field, something he shouldn’t have done and apologised for, later. Anyway, this led to a barrage of reactions online. 

3. When Dhoni got angry with Billy Bowden for calling back Michael Hussey after the Australian was declared out by the third umpire. 

In Bowden’s defense, it did look like Hussey had gotten his foot back to the crease, but Dhoni was not impressed by the call-back at all. 

By ‘not impressed’ I mean, full “what did you just say?” disbelief. This happened in 2012. 

4. When Dhoni lashed out at Manish Pandey for not converting a single to two runs in 2018.

If we know anything about Dhoni, we know he prefers to convert ones into twos. Manish Pandey made the blunder of forgetting that when playing against South Africa, and got an earful from the former captain. It didn’t help that it was the 19th over. 

5. When Dhoni shouted at Mohammad Shami and told him not to lie. 

This happened in 2014 when Shami bowled a bouncer out of anger. When Dhoni approached him about the same, the bowler said that the ball slipped out his hand. To which Dhoni apparently replied:

Dekh beta, bohot log aaye mere saamne. Bohot log khel ke chale gaye, jhoot mat bol.

6. When Mahi got angry with Michell Johnson for blocking his way when he was running between the wickets in 2009.

Johnson also hit him with a few bouncers, something Dhoni did not appreciate at all. He then went on to hit some bold shots to channel his aggression.

7. When he lost his cool with Kuldeep Yadav and reminded the bowler of the number of ODIs he has played.

This happened during a match against Sri Lanka when Kuldeep couldn’t quite get the grip of what Dhoni was instructing. And so, Dhoni walked up to him and said:

Main pagal hun? 300 ODI khela samjha raha hun tujhe yahan pe.

And this is what happened later in the team bus:

I was so scared of him that day. After the match, I went up to him in the team bus and asked if he ever got angry. he replied, “20 saal se gussa nahi kiya hai“.

Can’t hold most of it against him, though, can we?