Reminiscing his 'special knock' of 87 runs from just 25 balls, Chennai Super Kings batsman Suresh Raina on Saturday said that he badly wanted to take his team in the finals of the Indian Premier League 2014.
In the second qualifier of the playoffs stage, Kings XI Punjab had scored 226 runs on the back of Virender Sehwag's blistering knock of 122 runs off just 58 balls.
Sehwag's innings was studded with 12 fours and eight sixes and the right-handed batsman scored his runs at a strike rate of 210.34
Chasing 226, CSK had the worst possible start as Faf du Plessis was dismissed in the second ball of the very first over.
Raina, who came in to bat at number 3, went all guns blazings right from the start and smashed KXIP bowlers out of the park.
KXIP bowlers looked clueless as Raina bludgeoned the bowling attack with CSK smashing 100 runs in the powerplay. The asking rate which was 11.3 at the start of the innings came down to 9.07 after Raina's heroics.
However, the left-handed batsman got run out on the first ball of the seventh over. Raina's innings was studded with 12 fours and six glorious sixes.
"Only thing was running through my mind was not to give up & make it through. So badly wanted to make it to the finals. It will always remain a very special knock for me. #WhistlePodu," Raina tweeted.
Chennai fell 24-run short as the side was restricted to 202/7 in the allotted twenty overs.
Raina has been the key cog in the batting wheel of the CSK. He made his ODI debut in 2005 against Sri Lanka, while his first game in the longest format came in 2010 against them as well. Raina scored a century in his maiden Test.
Raina would have been in action for CSK in IPL if the tournament had started on March 29. However, the mega event was suspended indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.
( With inputs from ANI )
