Suresh Raina First Indian To Achieve This T20 Milestone

Suresh Raina has not been consistent for his state team in the recent times. The out-of-favour Indian batsman has notched up only three half-centuries in his last nine innings while featuring for Uttar Pradesh. However, it was enough for Raina to become the first Indian to register 8,000 runs in T20s. The veteran achieved this feat while he scored 12 runs against Puducherry in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy at Delhi on Monday. With those 12 runs, Raina has now scored 8,001 from 300 T20s which consisted of 284 innings.

Raina has the highest score of an unbeaten 126 in T20s with an average of 33.47. He has notched up 48 half-centuries and four centuries in this format.

Apart from Raina, Virat Kohli (7833) and Rohit Sharma (7795) are the only other batsmen in the top 10 list of the highest run-getters in T20 cricket.

Windies veteran Chris Gayle (12,298) has the most runs in T20 followed by Brendon McCullum (9,922) and Kieron Pollard (8,838).

However, Raina's poor form did not affect the team as Uttar Pradesh won by 77 runs.

Opting to bat, Uttar Pradesh got off to a good start as their first-wicket fell on 48 runs. Later, Priyam Garg (54) played a match-winning innings to help his side reach 179 for four in 20 overs.

In response, Puducherry could manage only 102 for six, thanks to a disciplined bowling performance from Saurabh Kumar who bagged four wickets for 14 runs.