Suresh Raina stormed to a century to lift the Chennai Super Kings to 186 for four in their Indian Premier League match against the Kings XI Punjab at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Thursday.
Raina followed up his 63 not out against the Pune Warriors with 100 not out off just 53 deliveries with his first IPL ton including seven fours and six sixes.
The left-handed Raina had brought up his 17th IPL fifty off 32 balls as Chennai took advantage of winning the toss and electing to bat on a very hot day.
Raina looked untroubled from the moment he arrived at the crease and the pair of straight sixes he hit off an over from seamer Manpreet Gony were arguably the shots of the innings as the batsman reached his century off the penultimate ball of the innings.
Albie Morkel and Raina hammered 74 runs for a fourth-wicket partnership that used up just 6.2 overs with Morkel contributing 23 off 16 deliveries although the South African did enjoy a life when he was dropped at deep square leg off the bowling of leg-spinner Piyush Chawla when he scored just seven.
Morkel departed in the 19th over when he was caught at long-on off the bowling of seamer Parvinder Awana.
Chennai lost Wriddhiman Saha (18) in the fourth over of their innings, caught at deep square leg off the bowling of Awana.
Michael Hussey and Raina then combined for a 55-run second-wicket stand off 7.2 overs with the in-form Hussey contributing 35 off 29 balls before he walked past a quicker delivery from Chawla and was stumped.
Hussey took his run-tally for this season’s IPL to 485, one more than Chris Gayle, to make him the leading run-scorer at this year’s IPL.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (2) was run out before Raina and Morkel launched their attack.
Awana finished with 2-29 off four overs.
CHENNAI SUPER KINGS: WP Saha, MEK Hussey, SK Raina, MS Dhoni (capt & wk), S Badrinath, RA Jadeja, DJ Bravo, JA Morkel, CH Morris, R Ashwin, MM Sharma
KINGS XI PUNJAB: SE Marsh, Mandeep Singh, DJ Hussey (capt), DA Miller, LA Pomersbach, Gurkeerat Singh (wk), R Sathish, PP Chawla, MS Gony, P Kumar, P Awana
