JOIN USSuresh Raina slammed a fine half-century to help Chennai Super Kings post a competitive 177 for seven against Delhi Daredevils in an Indian Premier League match here today.
Raina made 56 off 41 balls during which he struck five boundaries and one six. He shared 54 runs off 46 balls for the second wicket with Dwayne Smith to lay the base for the total.
Towards the end, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni used his long handle to great effect to race his way to 32 off just 15 balls with the help of two fours and as many sixes. Faf Du Plesis also made a useful 24 off 17 balls.
Chennai made a relatively quiet start to their innings after electing to bat as they scored their 50-run mark off exactly the same number of balls.
Chennai, however, suffered their first blow in the fourth over in the form of dangerous Brendon McCullum (9).
The hard-hitting Kiwi batsman failed to latch on to a life provided by J P Duminy off Jaydev Unadkat's first delivery and perished in the next ball, caught by substitute Wayne Parnell at short thirdman.
After McCullum's dismissal, Raina and Dwayne Smith played cautiously to build the innings together and help Chennai make 65 runs for the loss of one wicket at the halfway mark.
After taking a close look of the wicket, Raina finally opened up and clobbered left-arm spinner Shabaz Nadeem straight over his head for the first six of the innings.
But Chennai suffered their second blow in the last ball of the 11th over when Smith was cleaned up by Nadeem.
The wicket hardly had any impact on Raina as he smacked Murali Vijay for three fours in the next over.
Raina brought up his half-century in the next over off 36 balls with the help of five fours and one six.
But soon after Raina departed in search of quick runs. He was caught by Vijay at long-on off Jimmy Neesham.
Then came in Dhoni and he made his intentions clear from the onset by smacking Unadkat for six and four in consecutive deliveries of the 17th over.
Dhoni was going great guns before he found Mayank Agarwal at the square-leg boundary off Unadkat's bowling.
Mithun Manhas made a quick five-ball unbeaten 12.
For Delhi, Unadkat (3/32) picked up three wickets while pace spearhead Mohammed Shami (1/45) went for runs.