Suresh Raina : Ghaziabad’s Explosive Hitter : Cricketfundas.com

Suresh Raina is a flamboyant left handed middle order batsman from Uttar Pradesh and was born on the 27th November, 1986 at Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh. Raina is from the Sports College in Lucknow which has the reputation of producing Mohammad Kaif.

Raina had come into prominence on 16th February, 2004 when he scored a hurricane knock of 90 in 38 balls against Scotland in the ICC Under 19 World Cup Group C match. India batting first scored a mammoth 425/3 in its allotted 50 overs. Shikhar Dhawan scored an unbeaten 155 in that innings and he along with Suresh Raina put on 131 runs for the 3rd wicket in just 62 balls. Suresh Raina who had come in at no.4 on that day bludgeoned the Scottish bowlers for 14 boundaries and 2 sixes.

The Ghaziabad Teenager also earned a Man of the Match award in the U19 World Cup, the award was for his 66 in 84 balls against West Indies. That innings helped India U19 to set a target of 254, West Indies lost the match by 96 runs with Suresh Raina bowling a mean spell of 10-3-23-2.

At the age of 16, this youngster made his U19 debut for India U19 during its tour to England. It was the same tour when Ambatti Rayudu scored his brilliant 177 not out in just 114 balls.

Also known as Sanu, Raina got a break into first class cricket at the tender age of 16 itself when he played for Uttar Pradesh in its Ranji Trophy clash against Assam in February 2003. Raina batting at no.3 impressed everyone with a 22 and a neat 40. That was the only game this youngster could play in the 2002/03 Ranji Season. He began the 2003/04 first class season in the right fashion by notching up 43 and 50 against Mumbai. Since then he has been a regular for Uttar Pradesh and has played 15 first class games and 15 List A matches (Limited Overs First Class). He has scored a century and 8 half centuries in First Class Cricket. His maiden century had come against Andhra in the 2003/04 season.

Suresh Raina is at no. 10 in the Leading Run Scorers of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group for the 2004-05 Season. Raina scored 482 runs in 6 Matches with 4 half centuries at a sound average of 43.81. For the record the leading run scorer was Niraj Patel of Gujarat with 735 runs from 7 matches.

Raina has been a gifted stroke player when it comes to One Day Cricket and his stats simply suggest that. The youngster has a hundred and 5 half centuries in his 14 innings. He has an exciting strike rate of 102. Playing for Central Zone in the Deodhar Trophy, Raina hit a stroke filled 104-ball 129 with 14 fours and 4 sixes against East Zone at Rajkot. Central Zone batting first were powered to 346/8 in 50 Overs. But they still lost the match and they had to as they were dealing with the Macho Man - Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Dhoni's 68-ball 87 helped East to win that game comfortably.

Suresh Raina is also a steady off spinner and is often called upon to bowl some tight spells in both versions of the game. One good thing that's shaping up in Indian Cricket is that we are getting guys who can bat and bowl reasonably well and that was certainly missing in the past. I bet guys like Suresh Raina, Venugopala Rao have the brains and the skills to pull down the runs if not the wickets with their off breaks in tight situations.

Suresh did get a good chance in playing for India B in the Challenger Trophy, however he couldn’t make anything of the opportunity as he got out for a duck in his only innings in that tournament. His biggest break did come when he represented the Board President’s XI against the touring Pakistan team at Dharmashala. But again bow down to the Nature with rains visiting the visitors and in that rain affected 3-day match, Raina didn’t get an opportunity to bat or bowl!

Suresh Raina got another opportunity to have a crack at the visiting Pakistan team and this time it was the warm up one dayer between the Pakistanis and the India A team on March 30 in my city which now has a beautiful stadium called 'Visaka International Stadium' located in the Industrial area of Uppal. Batting first, India A struggled to make 189/7 in its allotted 50 overs. Suresh Raina was the top scorer as he scored a polished 55 in 65 balls with 5 hits to the fence. The left hander played some great shots like lifting the Pakistani fast bowlers over the covers. It was a promising knock indeed as it came against bowlers like Naved-ul-Hasan, Abdul Razzaq, Danish Kaneria and Arshad Khan.

Uttar Pradesh has had great success in the Ranji One Dayers last season and it was mainly because of this teenager. In the semi finals against Mumbai, Raina first picked up 4/33 in his 10 overs and then scored an unbeaten 72 as he took U.P to a comfortable 4 wicket win at the Wankhede. In the final against Tamil Nadu at the Wankhede, Raina dazzled with a quick fire 48 from 33 balls, but after his dismissal, U.P. lost its way and the match ended in an exciting tie.

Raina was granted the Border-Gavaskar scholarship along with Y Venugopal Rao of Andhra and Shikhar Dhawan of Delhi and was sent to the Australian Cricket Academy for coaching. This lucky bloke then had a opportunity of his life when he got to face the likes of McGrath, Brett Lee and Gillespie in one of the practice sessions.

And now with the absence of the two batting superstars in Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, Suresh Raina has got the break straightaway into the Indian Team. The Indian Oil Cup would be THE CHALLENGE for this teenager to display his temperament because one can never question "Talent" when it comes to any player selected to represent a big country like India. Not only that Raina could easily give the likes of Dravid, Pathan, Zaheer, Yuve and other good looking guys a run for their money as he could well be the most good looking guy in the Indian team... no I am not exaggerating! Just waiting for the Indian Oil Cup to kick off because now that we have some fresh faces in the Indian Team it makes all that more interesting to watch them how they can cope up against top class performers like Chaminda Vaas, Muralitharan and ofcourse one of the best one day bowlers Sanath Jayasuriya. Ofcourse yaar...one has seen enough of Sachin, Sourav, Rahul taking the responsibility of seeing India through...its now the time to give the youngsters a go and groom them for a long and successful career ahead! Following are some stats related to this Ghaziabad lad and now you make whatever you want of this left hander!

M	I	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	100	50	SRate	Ct
15	26	1	1092	106	43.68	1	8	50.60	22

Balls	Maidens	Runs	Wkts	BB	Ave	St Rate	Eco
276	12	118	1	1/41	118.00	276.00	2.56

Balls	Maidens	Runs	Wkts	BB	Ave	St Rate	Eco
348	2	240	10	4/33	24.00	34.80	4.13

Balls	Maidens	Runs	Wkts	BB	Ave	St Rate	Eco
132	6	87	1	1/31	87.00	132.00	3.95

Balls	Maidens	Runs	Wkts	BB	Ave	St Rate	Eco
540	7	330	7	2/23	47.14	77.14	3.66

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