IPL 2018: Match 5, Player Battles – Suresh Raina vs Sunil Narine

Suresh Raina has been a crucial part of the mighty Chennai Super Kings even since the inaugural IPL season. Raina is CSK’s main batting weapon and holds the key for the team more than their skipper MS Dhoni. The left-hander adds value with his fielding efforts and his part-time off-spin that could be handy in breaking big partnerships. Raina started the 2017/18 season with low scores in the Ranji Trophy but shown signs of form in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament that brought him back to the national side.

Suresh Raina began to go hard during the fielding restrictions in the last couple of months to power his team to a quick-fire start. As a result, Raina often got out early in the innings for brisk 20s and 30s. In the opening game of the IPL 2018, Raina got out on a harmless from Hardik Pandya trying for a big shot. CSK will be hoping a rather long inning from their vice-captain with batting left to come after him. Raina needs to bring a change his approach as CSK promoted Ambati Rayudu as an opener and Kedar Jadhav getting ruled out of the tournament.

CSK will be taking on Kolkata Knight Riders in their first home game of the season. Raina will be hoping to continue his good record against KKR against whom he scored 701 runs in 18 IPL innings at an average of 46.73 with seven fifties. Sunil Narine managed to trouble many top players in the IPL even after the change in his bowling action but never got a hold on to Suresh Raina. The CSK batsman scored 84 runs in 58 balls from the off-spinner in the IPL without getting out.

The 84 runs are the most Raina scored against any bowler without getting out and the most Narine conceded without dismissing the batsman even once in the IPL. Iqbal Abdullah (55 runs) is the only other bowler to concede 50+ runs without getting Raina’s wicket even once.

The 2nd most runs Sunil Narine conceded to any batsman without getting him out even once in the IPL is only 33 runs to AB de Villiers. The 83 runs Raina scored are also the 3rd most runs in the IPL against Narine after David Warner (108) and Rohit Sharma (107). Both the players got out to the off-spinner on two occasions.

(Stats as on April 9, 2018)