Raina Rains near century at Centurion

After the early dismissal of Mathew Hayden and Parthiv Patel for a paltry 1 and 3 respectively, Chennai Super Kings were taken on a repair job by Suresh Raina & Badrinath. Although Badrinath departed after scoring 26 odd runs, Raina started the slow but sure annihilation of Rajasthan Royals bowling attack.

Such was the ferocity of the strokes hit by Raina that one could see the real psychological thrashing on Rajasthan Royals’ fielders, who had a harrowing time chasing the elusive ball vanishing to all parts of the ground courtesy the amazing array of strokes by Raina on Thursday.

The other highlight of the match was the clash of the Old finalists Shane Warne and M.S. Dhoni, who had locked up in a battle in the finals of IPL’s inaugural season. Dhoni’s eagerness to revenge the last season defeat against this old foe was quite evident in the match, as he smartly marshaled his bowling resources to seize a victory for the Chennai Super Kings in the end.

The wicket of the fearsome Yusuf Pathan of the bowling of Laxmipati Balaji was probably the most crucial and deciding moment of the match, which dashed all hopes of Rajasthan Royals’ chasing the required score in the stipulated overs,