Abu Dhabi: Suresh Raina, who scored a brilliant 56 for Chennai Super Kings against Delhi Daredevils on Monday, attributed his success to the freedom he enjoys in the T20 format.
“I think if you ask me honestly, it’s because I bat at No.3 here but, if you look at my ODI record, most of the time I bat at No.5, No.6 or No.7. I have the freedom to bat in Twenty-20 because I know I have just 20 overs. I can go after six overs and still I have 14 overs,” said Raina, who won the Man-of-the-Match award on Monday.
“That’s the strength of my batting in T-20. Over the last six-seven years, I just go there and look forward to be solid at the start and I can play my strokes later on. I guess that’s the success mantra for me in the last six years,” added Raina, who completed a century of IPL matches in Abu Dhabi last week.
“I think it’s been really good. God has been very kind with CSK and I think Chennai food has made me stronger. I think we have done really well over the last six years. This season we have new players and, with today’s win, it’s important for us to continue,” Raina said.
One of the factors behind Raina’s freewheeling approach for the Chennai franchise is certainly the latter’s investment in a strong batting line-up over the years. Prior to the 2014 players’ auction, CSK were always a strong batting side with big names like Mathew Hayden, Michael Hussey, M.S.Dhoni and allrounders like Albie Morkel and Dwayne Bravo complementing the line-up.
CSK have kept the trend going this year too, bringing in the likes of Faf du Plessis and Brendon McCullum to fill up the vacant slots. Du Plessis, in particular, has looked in good form, linking the top-heavy Chennai batting order with finishers coming in late.
The South African T-20 skipper has been an asset in the field too, which Raina believes has added to the team’s strengths. “When you know you have lot of good fielders in the circle, you can create lot of pressure on the opponents. I think this has made us realise that we have a strong fielding side but we still need to work more on our ground fielding. Hopefully, we will do better in the coming matches,” he added.
CSK will miss Bravo for the rest of the tournament, but Raina says no team can have control over injuries. “I think he is one of the guys who gives 100 per cent to the team, dances and enjoys with the players in the dressing room. Unfortunately, he got injured but that will give us the opportunity to use the other players.”
