Left-handed batsman Suresh Raina heaved a sigh of relief after he struck a century in just 49 balls in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy tournament at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on January 22. The Uttar Pradesh skipper achieved this feat during a T20 match against Bengal.
Raina (126* off 59-ball), who came to bat at No 3 following the dismissal of Samarth Singh in the very first over of the game, smashed the Bengal bowlers as he struck 13 fours and 7 sixes during his stay at the crease. This was Suresh Raina’s 4th century in T20 format.
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With this century, Raina equals Virat Kohli (4) and Rohit Sharma’s (4) record of most centuries in T20 cricket.
From one left hander to another. In the former Captain @SGanguly99’s presence, @ImRaina hits a 49-ball century #BENvUP pic.twitter.com/knqpuixutZ
— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) January 22, 2018
Besides scoring a century, Suresh Raina also became the 9th player and the 2nd Indian after Virat Kohli to score 7000 runs in the T20 format.
Raina, who has scored 13, 2, 26, 1 and 13 in his last five innings in T20 format, got back into the form just ahead of the start of the 11th season of Indian Premier League (IPL). Raina has been retained by Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
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Besides Raina, CSK, who is making a comeback into the IPL following a two-year ban after the spot-fixing scandal, also retained their captain MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja.
Raina is currently out of the national side following some fitness issues. Recently he has cleared the mandatory Yo-Yo test after going through intense training in Bengaluru.
With this captain’s knock, Raina has proved that he is back in form and can be picked for the national side.
End Innings: Uttar Pradesh – 235/3 in 19.6 overs (S N Khan 10 off 3, Suresh Raina 126 off 58) #BENvUP @paytm #MushtaqAliT20
— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) January 22, 2018
Earlier, Uttar Pradesh’s skipper Raina won the toss and elected to bat first. They got off to a poor start as they lost two quick wickets under 6 overs. Raina and Akshdeep Nath (80, 43 balls, 7×4, 4×6) then took their team to a promising total of 235/3 in their allotted 20 overs.
