Suresh Raina entertained the 15,000 fans who turned up for CSK practice game

The Chennai Super Kings are back! And their fans cannot keep calm! CSK is one of the most loved teams and the fact that they were banned for the last couple of seasons hasn’t changed a thing as far as the Yellow Army that flocks the stands of the Chepauk with a lot of pride. The team is in Chennai and they are gearing up for the Indian Premier League (IPL) season 11.

They will play their first match on April 10 against the Kolkata Knight Riders. Thus the ticket got up for sales starting Monday. The team was practicing and their crazy followers didn’t want to miss out on a second of the action. The stands at the Chepauk were full and a lot of people on social media wondered if there was an actual match going on there.

The Super Kings were playing a practice match without skipper MS Dhoni. It started at 5 p.m and the lower level of the C, D and E stands were full. As the match progressed it is expected that there were nearly 15,000 people present.

Dhoni was in New Delhi to accept the Padma Bhushan honour that was awarded to him by the government of India. In his absence, Suresh Raina was the man in focus. The team head coach Stephen Fleming ensured he got ample time in the middle and for the same, he batted twice in the game.

Raina gets going

He wasn’t at his best in the first outing and scored 34 from 27 balls. When he walked out again he got going and attacked the bowlers to score 54 from 27 balls hitting seven sixes and a boundary. It was Deepak Chahar who faced the burnt as Raina hit him for four sixes.

Wrist spinners are the hottest property in international cricket as well as in T20s  and CSK have two really good leg-spinners in South Africa’s Imran Tahir and a very successful IPL name in Karn Sharma. Both the spinners picked four wickets each and were pretty economical as well.

Among other prominent players Kedar Jadhav didn’t quite get going and despite batting thrice had an ordinary day. All-rounder Dwayne Bravo had a go at both his trades as he batted as well as bowled. Indian pacer Shardul Thakur who is the leader of the pack for CSK also worked hard and bowled a lot more than his quota of 4 overs.

Here is how the CSK squad looked like after the auction:

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