Suresh Raina is easily one of the most destructive batsmen in Twenty20 cricket worldwide. There is something about the three-hour bash that brings the best out of him, repeatedly, and he was close to his best at a packed M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Saturday (October 4) night.
With a mesmeric display of dazzling strokeplay, Raina reduced the final of the Oppo Champions League Twenty20 2014 to a largely one-sided affair as Chennai Super Kings ended a three-year title drought in the most comprehensive fashion. Chasing 181, Chennai rode on Raina’s third T20 century to storm to 185 for 2 and an eight-wicket win with nine deliveries to spare. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, duly, brought up the winning runs in customary style with a giant six over long-on.
Kolkata Knight Riders had the advantage of scoreboard pressure after having amassed 180 for 6 upon being put in. Gautam Gambhir had led from the front with 80, an innings that wasn’t always necessarily fluent, and even though Pawan Negi, the little left-arm spinner bowled wonderfully well to finish with 5 for 22, Kolkata would have fancied their chances of emulating Chennai and completing the IPL-CLT20 double even minus Sunil Narine, their talismanic mystery spinner.
They would, too, have been wary of the firepower in the Chennai ranks. Their worst nightmare would have involved one of the Chennai top three getting stuck. That nightmare came true in front of a raucous crowd that was treated to brilliant batsmanship by Raina (109*, 62b, 6×4, 8×6), who took Kuldeep Yadav and Piyush Chawla apart with some of the cleanest, biggest straight sixes seen at the Chinnaswamy.
Admittedly, it was a wonderful batting strip and Kolkata were severely handicapped by Narine’s absence, but that should hardly detract from Raina’s innings. Dwayne Smith had been dismissed in the first over for the 13th time in his T20 career, yorked by a slower one from Pat Cummins, Narine’s replacement. Cummins induced an inside edge from Raina off the first ball the batsman faced, an edge that flew to the fine-leg fence. That was one of only two or three false strokes as Raina lorded over the Kolkata bowling, and particularly the spinners whom he hit for seven of his eight sixes.
The other was particularly delightful as, very early in his innings, he backed away and drove Andre Russell over cover for a trademark six, the surest indication that all is well with Raina’s batting world. With Brendon McCullum largely a silent and admiring partner, Raina donned his dancing shoes with devastating effect, tearing Kolkata’s anaemic spin resources apart and handing out a harsh lesson or two to Kuldeep, the 19-year-old who earlier in the day was picked in the Indian One-Day International squad to face West Indies.
McCullum himself made a 30-ball 39 but was in the main anonymous during the second-wicket stand of 118 (74b). Actually, Raina made everyone look pedestrian. Ten days back, he had smashed a 43-ball 90 against the Dolphins to bring Chennai’s campaign back on track after their opening match loss to Kolkata. On Saturday, he went one better to help his side exact sweet revenge and add to their already impressive silverware collection.
Unlike in the IPL where they struck a purple patch midway through the combination, Robin Uthappa and Gambhir haven’t blown quite as hot in this competition. Their only association of note was against Lahore Lions in their second group game when they put on a hundred stand. They couldn’t have chosen a better occasion to rediscover their mojo as they got Kolkata off to the perfect start in a crunch game.
Truth be told, they also benefitted immensely from an unusually shoddy display with both ball and in the field from Chennai. Until Negi and, to a lesser extent Ravindra Jadeja, arrived with their intelligent brand of left-arm spin, there were far too many loose deliveries on offer. The fielding was less than exemplary with the main culprits being generally their most outstanding fielders – McCullum and Raina.
Uthappa signalled his intentions with a peachy backdrive off the first ball of the second over from Mohit Sharma, but it was Gambhir who was the clear dominator in the opening tandem worth 91. There were some wonderful strokes from the Kolkata captain, but there were also a few agricultural hoicks and slices of fortune as the ball flew off inside edge and outside.
Uthappa was a lot more assured and correct, using his feet to the offspin of R Ashwin, playing his 100th consecutive T20 match for Chennai, and driving crisply against the quicker bowlers. Dhoni looked slightly nonplussed as the partnership grew in proportion, though he perhaps had an inkling as he brought on Negi ahead of Jadeja.
After an uneventful first over, Negi started to make dramatic and swift inroads. Slowing up the ball a touch as he found some purchase off the surface, he left Uthappa stranded after a partnership of 91 (65b). Jacques Kallis was dropped first ball at slip by Raina but perished in the left-arm spinner’s next over, smartly caught by Nehra running in from deep cover and suddenly, Kolkata lost a bit of momentum.
Gambhir continued to hit out, finding Faf du Plessis at long-on off Negi but getting away with it after the fielder touched the rope before he could release the ball. Having seen Dwayne Bravo parry a like attempt early in the piece over the ropes and escaped being run out on no fewer than three occasions, Gambhir continued to bat with aggression as Kolkata approached what turned out to be a bizarre last five overs.
The 16th over from Bravo yielded 18, the 18th sent down by Nehra went for 20, and the final over, also surprisingly bowled by Nehra, produced 19. In between, Jadeja conceded just 3 in the 17th and Negi went one better, going for just 2 in the 19th while picking up three wickets, including Gambhir whose luck ran out as McCullum held on to a screamer. Manish Pandey and Yusuf Pathan lashed out at different times, and the board just kept rattling along even as wickets fell. It was frenetic, it was scarcely believable but it was every bit entertaining. As the chase turned out to be, too.
