Former India cricketer Suresh Raina had a forgettable outing with the bat as the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) resumed on Sunday. The Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led outfit re-started their campaign on a high note by defeating the reigning champions Mumbai Indians (MI) by 20 runs at the Dubai International stadium.
Despite the margin of the victory, it was a hard-fought win for the three-time Indian Premier League champions, especially considering their torrid start with the bat in the first innings of the match.
Batting first, the Chennai based outfit were reeling at 25/4 in 5.6 overs with their five stars batsman – Faf du Plessis (0), Moeen Ali (0), Ambati Rayudu (0 runs, retd hurt), Suresh Raina (4 runs) and MS Dhoni (3 runs) – back in the stands.
After the match, several CSK cricketers were heavily criticized for their performance for their lacklustre show with the bat. And the critics were especially hard on Raina with former South African pacer Dale Steyn labelling him a “school boy cricketer” for his performance in that game.
Rain scored 4 runs off 6 balls before he was removed from the attack by ace New Zealand seamer Trent Boult.
Steyn also heaped praises on Boult for his on-point and “almost Test match bowling” in the game. He even went on to say that Raina looked scared after Boult set an aggressive field on the leg side and ran to bowl.
“He (Raina) looked like a school boy cricketer at a point. I couldn’t believe this was an international player doing what he was doing, almost embarrassing that he broke his bat and got out,” Steyn told ESPNCricinfo.
Steyn also acknowledged that have that bowl went for a six, he would not have made this statement.
Meanwhile, Chennai will return to action on Friday when they will take on Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the 35th match of IPL.
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