Dhawan, Raina shore innings after Rohit’s fall
CAPE TOWN: With his knocks in the T20 series here, Suresh Raina is pressing his case for another shot in the 50-over format where India have struggled to find batsmen to man the middle order.
On Friday, the eve of the final T20 International, Raina had spoken about how he is looking forward to an opportunity in the ODIs with slots at Nos. 4, 5 and 6 not yet confirmed.
By giving him the opportunity to bat at No. 3 in this format, Kohli has probably thrown his career a lifeline. And the lefthander, who hadn’t featured in a limited overs game for India for over a year before this T20 series, is making the opportunities count.
Raina last played for the India in a T20 game in January, 2017 and since then he has been out of favour.
On Saturday, after India’s stand-in captain Rohit Sharma lost the toss – with Virat Kohli sitting out due to lower stiff back, it was up to the India openers to provide a strong start.
However, with Rohit falling early and India 14/1, it was left to Raina.
He took the fight to the opposition, outscoring his in-form partner Shikhar Dhawan by a distance. At the time of going to press India were 125/3 in the 15th over.
After nine overs, India had raced 75/1 and Raina’s contribution was 42 off 25 balls. Dhawan, on the other hand, had scored just 21 off 23 balls. Through Raina was out soon after, he had laid the platform.
“In the first six overs of powerplay, we need to go after runs as we have good players, like
Kohli, MS Dhoni and Manish Pandey, down the order,” Raina had said on Friday.
He began Saturday’s knock with a six, flicking one from Junior Dala, over the deep square leg boundary. Dala had been bowling well in this series.
Though the Proteas have finally given up on bowling short at India batsmen, and the strategy has probably worked against Dhawan in the last two games, it seems to have helped Raina, who otherwise has struggled against short deliveries throughout his career.
Raina cashed in on length deliveries, welcoming Andile Phehlukwayo with two boundaries through extra cover.
While he is pushing his case, Manish Pandey, who had made 79 in the last game at No. 5 and was slotted in this game at No. 4, fell just when India needed another quick knock from him, particularly with Dhawan struggling to get the boundaries at the other end.
The Karnataka batsman holed out to long on.