Suresh Raina hits third fifty in IPL 2018 for Chennai Super Kings

Suresh Raina slammed his 34th IPL fifty and his third in the 2018 edition for Chennai Super Kings during their Indian Premier League match against Rajasthan Royals at the Sawai Mansingh stadium on Friday. (HIGHLIGHTS)

Opting to bat, Chennai Super Kings lost Ambati Rayudu (12) to Jofra Archer’s first ball but Raina started off in brilliant fashion by flicking Archer to deep square leg and capitalizing on a free-hit with a carved drive to square third man. On 15, Raina overtook Virat Kohli to become the leading run-getter in the history of the IPL. (SCORECARD)

The left-hander continued to bat aggressively by muscling a short ball from Ben Stokes to the deep mid wicket fence. Raina slog swept a flighted googly from Ish Sodhi over mid wicket for his first six and he was given good support by Shane Watson who also got into the act with a pulled six off Sodhi as the partnership went past 50.

With both batsmen rotating strike, the pressure mounted on Rajasthan Royals but the 80-run stand was broken when Watson (39) top-edged a pull off Archer to be caught by wicketkeeper Jos Buttler running back. Raina notched up his milestone off just 32 balls by short-arm jabbing a short ball to mid wicket.

However, soon after reaching his fifty, Raina (52) top-edged a sweep shot off a Sodhi googly to be caught at short fine leg by Stuart Binny. However, his knock has put Chennai Super Kings on top.