Raina was superb: Dhoni

Super Kings skipper credits emphatic win over Royals to the left-handers 55-ball 98

Super Kings skipper credits emphatic win over Royals to the left-handers 55-ball 98

A confused Suresh Raina's near-century paved the way for the Chennai Super Kings' second victory of the Indian Premier League on Thursday over the Rajasthan Royals.

In the second match of a double-header, Raina made 98 in guiding his team to 164-5 after Rajasthan won the toss and sent them in to bat.

He reached his half-century from only 26 deliveries and thought he had reached a ton off 55 balls in the final over the result of a mistake displayed on the stadium scoreboard.

In fact, Raina was only on 98 when he lifted his bat in celebration. He went big off the next ball the third last of the innings but was caught by Proteas skipper Graeme Smith in the deep and must have been seething when he got back to the dressing room.

Title holders Rajasthan were dismissed for 126 runs with seamer Lakshmipathy Balaji returning a magnificent 4-21 as Chennai secured a comfortable 38-run win.

The Chennai bowlers combined superbly with South African Albie Morkel and New Zealander Jacob Oram picking up two wickets each.

Middle-order batsman Ravindra Jadeja put up a fight for the defending champions with a defiant 37 off 33 balls, but received little support as Chennai took a morale-boosting victory.

Pathan on fire
Earlier, Rajasthan spinner Yusuf Pathan, who led the attack with a return of 2-17, had done a tremendous job with the new ball, removing Chennai openers Matthew Hayden and Parthiv Patel cheaply.

"Balaji, Tyagi, Muralitharan... everyone contributed and not to take anything away from Suresh. He was superb and got his century thanks to the mistake by scorer," Dhoni added. When Raina reached 98 with a boundary, the scorer had showed century for Raina but rectified immediately.

Want to carry on
The left-handed Raina, adjudged Man-of-the-Match for his brilliant effort with the bat said he was looking forward to carry on the good form in the rest of the tournament. "I wanted to play till the end when I got going. And I did that. Badrinath also played well and we want to continue it in the remaining matches," he said.
Raina also said that IPL was a good platform for youngsters to prepare for T20 World Cup. "The World Cup is coming up and Champions Trophy will also be played in South Africa. IPL is a good platform for the youngsters to learn and play hard cricket whenever get a chance."