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One of the legends of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and Indian cricket, Suresh Raina, has picked his top five knocks of all time from the league, where four Indian players have got a place. Being one of the regular members of the shortest format of the game, the left-handed batter has seen the game around the world.

In a recent interaction with the ‘2 Sloggers YouTube channel’, Suresh Raina was asked to pick his favorite five innings of the IPL’s history. The Uttar Pradesh-born has placed his crazy knock of 87 runs in 25 balls at the bottom, which came during the second qualifier against Punjab Kings at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai in 2014.

It could have been an outrageous century had he not been dismissed through a run-out with Brendon McCullum. The ‘Mr. IPL’ is the fifth highest run-getter of the league currently, with 5528 runs in 200 innings at an average of 32.51 and a strike rate of 136.73, shouldering on 39 half-centuries and one century.

Suresh Raina puts MS Dhoni’s knock over Virat Kohli to complete the list

Over the 17 seasons of the cash-rich tournament, there have been many quality knocks from the batters of all time. Looking at the situation of the game and where the team was standing at the point of time that knock came, and also based on the experience of the batter, Suresh Raina has claimed that Rinku Singh’s unbeaten 48-run knock of 21 balls is the greatest of the league.

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The left-handed India batter smashed Gujarat Titans’ Yash Dayal for five sixes in the last over to earn a dream victory from the jaws of defeat. The Aligarh-born smashed one boundary and six sixes with a strike rate of 228.57 to take the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) over the line.

The only non-Indian player to get a place on the list has been the former West Indies opening batter, Chris Gayle when he smashed a stunning knock of 175 runs in 66 balls playing for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) against the Pune Warriors India (PWI) in the 2013 season, which is still the world record for the highest individual score in the shortest format.

The left-handed batter nailed 13 boundaries and 17 over boundaries during the contest at a strike rate of over 260 and remained unbeaten in the game at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

Suresh Raina put his former IPL and Indian captain, MS Dhoni, in third place, when the wicket-keeper batter blasted a knock of unbeaten 54 runs in 29 deliveries at a strike rate of 186.20 against the Punjab side in Dharamsala, and also helped the yellow army to qualify for the playoffs of the tournament.

Chennai was under serious pressure in that game finding themselves at 3/89 in the tenth over during a chase of 193, and the captain showed his qualities with the bat.

Suresh Raina feels that Virat Kohli’s 113-run knock which he played in Bengaluru during the 2016 season. The former Indian captain was injured coming into the game as he had nine stitches on his hand, which he showed while celebrating the century.

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Virat smashed 113 runs in fifty balls, shouldering on 12 boundaries and eight sixes at a strike rate of 226. The Delhi-born, even in a short 15-over contest displayed his class and helped RCB to earn a victory by 82 runs.