Veteran Australian all-rounder Shane Watson slaughtered it all against his former team Rajasthan Royals on Friday.
But one man who was among the runs was Suresh Raina. Having recovered from a calf injury, Raina played a good hand of 46 off 29 balls.
He's an #IPL legend! https://t.co/tOi8SlIsFI
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) April 20, 2018
The southpaw took calculated risks and found the boundary on nine occasions. Cricket commentator, Harsha Bhogle was in all praise for the stylish top-order batter. Being one of the most successful scorers in the IPL, Harsha called him an ‘IPL legend’.
Raina was retained by the Chennai franchise ahead of the IPL auction. There were solid reasons to get him back on board.
Also Read: IPL 2018, Match 17, CSK v RR: Chennai Return to Winning Ways Courtesy Watson’s Ton
The left-hand batsman has scored 4604 runs at an average of 33.85. He has 31 fifties to his name along with a hundred. The batsman is currently the second highest run-getter in the history of the IPL after Virat Kohli.
“I spoke to MS quickly on the bus, I asked him how was feeling, and he said he was feeling better. He is at the training today. Much of the same with Raina, confident.” former CSK cricketer Michael Hussey had said before the game.
But little did the crowd in Pune know that their idol will play a match-winning knock.
We can’t replace Raina: Fleming
Coach of the CSK team, Stephen Fleming had earlier said it is not possible to replace Raina, but they will do a lot of thinking for finding a replacement, as the cricketer was nursing an injury ahead of the match against Punjab.
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“We can’t replace him. He is one of the best performer in the IPL and highest run scorer, so we can’t replace him, but we have just got to find a way to minimise his loss,” he said.
“We have got good players in our set up. Dhruv Shorey, Murali Vijay who has played here (in Mohali) last year… So, these are guys with points to prove with international experience and when they get the chance they would do their best to do what Suresh Raina can do.” Fleming added.
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