Suresh Raina - Indian Premier League

Indian Premier League

Suresh Raina was signed by the Chennai Super Kings for US$ 5 million for the first three years of the tournament. Raina made significant contributions in the first edition of the tournament to compensate the Chennai Super Kings over the losses of key players in Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey and Jacob Oram. He played a vital Man of the Match performance in the last league fixture to give Chennai Super Kings the win they required to qualify for the semi-finals. Ultimately the Super Kings finished as the runners-up of the league with Raina with 421 scoring the most runs for them.

Raina found form in the 2009 IPL scoring 434 runs off the 14 games he had played at a strike rate over 140.00.He made a sensational 98 runs from 55 balls (losing his century due to scoring errors) against the Rajasthan Royals at Centurion.He was the fourth leading-run getter of the tournament and second for the Super kings behind Orange-cap holder Matthew Hayden.Raina also became the fifth economical bowler of the tournament taking 7 wickets in all.

Again in 2010 IPL, Raina's consistent batting throughout the series won him applause and became the all-time run-getter of the league surpassing Australian legend Adam Gilchrist halfway down the tournament.He also captained the Super Kings for three matches in skipper Dhoni's absence and took some sensational catches in the field. He scored 520 runs in all, making him the third highest-run getter of the series and the first for Chennai. He also was awarded the "best fielder award" by the BCCI ahead of the finals. He played a vital half-century which turned the final to Chennai's tide who ultimately went on to become the champions beating the Mumbai Indians.

At the end of the season,Raina set the record for scoring the most no. of runs in the tournament, with 421, 434, and 520 and also taking the most no. of catches, two records that are still to be broken. Raina also had hit the second maximum no. of sixes behind Adam Gilchrist in the three editions of the league. He was retained by the Super Kings for the 2011 Indian Premier League along with Murali Vijay, Albie Morkel and skipper Dhoni.

In the 2011 IPL too, Suresh Raina maintained his reputation as the leading run-scorer with 438 runs, again being the only player to cross 400 do so for all the four seasons.His most crucial knock came against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Qualifier where he played a stunning innings to get the game back to Chennai's favor.

Despite struggling to find form in the initial stages of the 2012 IPL, Raina found form in the latter stages and finished the tournament as Chennai's leading run scorer, scoring 441 runs and on the course became the only player to score 400 runs in every IPL. He scored a blistering 73 in the final against Kolkata Knight Riders and added 116 with Sai Abburi, who scored a magnificent 86, to help his team put a big total on board. He became the first player in the history of IPL to cross the mark of 2000 IPL runs.