Replicating Viru’s approach helped me score 25-ball 87 against KXIP, reveals Suresh Raina

Replicating Viru’s approach helped me score 25-ball 87 against KXIP, reveals Suresh Raina

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Suresh Raina, in an instagram chat with his former CSK teammate Ravi Ashwin, revealed that it was Virender Sehwag who inspired him to go bonkers and smack the 25-ball 87 in qualifier 2 of IPL 2014 against KXIP. Eventually, CSK fell short by 24 runs in a game which witnessed 428 runs being scored.

Remembered as one of the craziest IPL games of all time, the qualifier 2 between Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings in 2014 yielded a mammoth 428 runs, with both sides taking full toll of a flat Wankhede wicket. While Virender Sehwag’s 122, batting first, that propelled KXIP to a score of 226, was expected to be the best knock of the night, what followed next from the bat of Suresh Raina left the entire cricketing fraternity stunned and in awe of the southpaw.

In what’s considered to be one of the greatest T20 knocks in the history of the game, Raina brutalised the Punjab bowling, hitting 18 boundaries off 25 balls to take his score 87 off just 25 balls. The game even saw CSK crazily reach the 100-run mark as early as the sixth over. Reflecting on the unfathomable knock, Raina revealed that he took inspiration from Sehwag himself and that it was the right-hander’s ‘hit straight’ approach which inspired him to do what he did on the day. 

“I think when I saw Viru bhai hitting I thought the wicket is definitely very good to bat on. After KXIP innings when we were going back into the dressing room, I kept telling myself to be calm,” Raina told Ashwin on Instagram Live.

“I was in a different zone in that match because I saw Viru bhai hitting from all the angles.. from slip, from point, from the covers. After I saw him hitting with the straight bat, I told myself I will also the use the same approach.”

A massive miscommunication between Raina and Brendon McCullum meant that the southpaw’s knock was tragically cut short, with him being run-out by his partner, but the 33-year-old revealed that both himself and skipper MS Dhoni firmly believed that CSK could win the match, despite the task at hand looking improbable. Eventually, the Chennai side faltered post Raina’s dismissal and went on to lose the game by 24 runs.

“Calmness made me believe we can chase the score. I think me and MS believed we could do it. I was very happy when almost every ball came out of the middle of the bat.”

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