Suresh Raina made his return to the cricket field today for the first time since the first phase of the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League. Unfortunately, the Chennai Super Kings star did not have a memorable outing with the bat against the Mumbai Indians as he lost his wicket in the powerplay overs only.
Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Mumbai Indians are playing without their star players Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya in the team. Still, playing under the leadership of their stand-in captain Kieron Pollard, the team has got off to a dream start in Dubai.
Mumbai Indians bowlers Trent Boult and Adam Milne gave a tough time to Chennai Super Kings batsmen
The decision to win the toss and bat first did not go in CSK’s favor, at least during the powerplay overs. Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis opened the innings for the team. The Indo-South African pair has achieved a lot of success in the past. However, du Plessis lost his wicket in the first over itself.
Moeen Ali came out at number three, only to lose his wicket to Adam Milne. Ambati Rayudu then joined Ruturaj Gaikwad in the middle. By the second over ended, Rayudu was back to the dressing room as he got retired hurt.
Suresh Raina played a bizarre knock in Dubai
Experienced player Suresh Raina replaced Ambati Rayudu on the pitch. Raina, who is nicknamed as Mr. IPL, failed to tackle the pace of Trent Boult and Adam Milne.
The left-handed batsman could only score four runs, that off a ball that edged his bat and traveled past the third man boundary. It was certainly a forgettable innings by Suresh, and here’s how Twitterati reacted to his performance.
Another one down, Suresh Raina goes too. Trent Boult removes him, CSK in all sorts of trouble with 3 down.
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) September 19, 2021
Boult breaks the bat and also sends back Raina for 4 after he finds Chahar at point😎
CSK – 7/3 (3)#OneFamily #MumbaiIndians #IPL2021 #CSKvMI
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) September 19, 2021
Raina's Last 5 Innings vs MI
2, 5, 8, 2, 4#MIvsCSK
— S H E B A S (@Shebas_10) September 19, 2021
Suresh Raina gonna hope the copyright lawyers are on the top of their game for that innings.
— Jarrod Kimber (@ajarrodkimber) September 19, 2021
Two short balls from Boult and Raina decided to go jai mata di mode
— Raviraj (@cricketaklysm) September 19, 2021
Remember one of the reasons of CSK not doing well last year in UAE was absence of Raina apparently, good times
— Prashanth S (@ps_it_is) September 19, 2021
raina never recovered from the short ball trauma.😔💔 pic.twitter.com/t9wAvLH4Mo
— hahaha // Kisses Supplier. (@innahsaar) September 19, 2021
Faf du plessis gone for Duck.
Moeen Ali gone for Duck.
Ambati Rayudu retired hurt.
Suresh Raina gone for 4 Run.Not a great for CSK in phase 2. #MIvsCSK
— CricketMAN2 (@man4_cricket) September 19, 2021