Raina sizzles with a century at Eden

The short-arm pulls were back, the flicks were landing over the ropes, the lofted cover drives were evading the fielders, and the fielding side had the fear in their eyes, the fear of Suresh Raina, which had been missing for the entire domestic season, finally found itself on Monday afternoon at the Eden Gardens Kolkata.

New Delhi: The short-arm pulls were back, the flicks were landing over the ropes, the lofted cover drives were evading the fielders, and the fielding side had the fear in their eyes, the fear of Suresh Raina, which had been missing for the entire domestic season, finally found itself on Monday afternoon at the Eden Gardens Kolkata.

After a string of low scores, Suresh Raina finally found the middle of his bat and how. A 49-ball century that forced former India captain and now the president of Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), Sourav Ganguly to long enough applause.

The southpaw stitched a mammoth 133-run stand with Akshdeep Nath (80) for the third wicket.

When Bengal medium pacer Mukesh Kumar finished off his and the UP’s last over, Raina had bludgeoned a staggering unbeaten 59 ball 126 at a strike rate of 213.56. The dropped shoulders from the hosts bore testimony to the hammering they took from Raina. UP had 235 on board, batting first.

“I was hitting the ball well, have been working really hard for some time and I’m glad it all came off today. You have to give yourself time even in a T20 game, you need at least 3-4 deliveries to get into the groove,” said Raina after his blistering innings in the Group B Super League match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament.

Often accused of going for the big shot very early into his innings, Raina gave himself time; he had no other option to be honest, as UP had lost their first wicket for naught.

The UP captain needed one bad over to get his flow back and that came rather early for Bengal’s liking when Raina hit Mukesh Kumar for 20, that included two fours through fine-leg and mid-on, followed by two towering sixes that had Raina written all over them.

It would not be fair to pinpoint at Mukesh only, pretty much every Bengal bowler was guilty of overdoing the short stuff to Raina. Raina used his wrists to good effect, scooping and pulling balls at will. He scored more than 70% of his runs through the fine leg and deep mid-wicket region.

Raina’s timely century, that included seven sixes and 13 fours is sure to bring some relief to the Chennai Super Kings, which retained the left-hander for IPL season 11.

 “I have done so much for CSK, I’m glad to be again united with MS and Jaddu,” Raina signed off.