Suresh Raina overcame early jitters to hit an unbeaten half-century and guide Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to a modest 138 for four in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Ranchi on Sunday.
During his 48-ball 62-run knock, Raina struck a six and six boundaries to help his team to a decent total after they struggled to force the pace for a major part of the innings at the JSCA International Stadium Complex in Ranchi.
Bangalore bowlers were very economical with Varun Aaron being the most impressive with figures of two for 29 from three overs.
Opting to bat, Chennai did not have an ideal start as they lost both their openers within the first five overs, with Aaron accounting for Dwayne Smith (9) and Brendon McCullum (19).
Raina walked into the middle when Chennai were in the spot of bother after losing two wickets in the same over with just 29 runs on the board in 4.4 overs.
Along with David Hussey, Raina rebuilt the Chennai innings, putting on 75 runs together for the third wicket.
Raina was more dominating of the two batsmen as he hit all the loose balls that came his way, even as Hussey struggled to get going. Finally it was Muttiah Muralitharan who saw Hussey off for a 29—ball 25.
Even Chennai skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni failed to take off despite hitting an early boundary off Yuzvendra Chahal.
In the final overs, Ravindra Jadeja chipped in with a nine-ball 10, putting on an unbroken 23 runs for the fifth wicket with Raina.
The Teams : Chennai Super Kings: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (c), Dwayne Smith, Brendon McCullum, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, David Hussey, Mithun Manhas, R Ashwin, Ishwar Pandey, Mohit Sharma, Samuel Badree
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (c), Chris Gayle, Parthiv Patel, AB de Villiers, Yuvraj Singh, S Rana, Mitchell Starc, Muttiah Muralitharan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Abu Ahmed, Varun Aaron.
