Raina’s all-round view

Chennai: Suresh Raina has been stand-in captain, star performer and effective all-rounder all rolled into one for Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2010. He played yet another key part in a Super Kings victory on Tuesday night with a quickfire 23 and important wicket. Raina spoke to the media after his team’s win over table-topping Mumbai Indians.

Excerpts:

On the three consecutive victories for CSK and what it has done for the team: Well, quite a few matches are left (four group games) but we have good momentum going for us. We were intense on the ground, we fielded well. But this is Twenty20, we cannot relax despite the two-day break. We need to continue playing like this because the upcoming matches are a ‘do or die’ situation for us. We need to plan and practice properly. Hopefully we will do well.

On the team looking good: I think everyone is enjoying each other’s success. (Murali) Vijay batted really well in the last two games. (MS) Dhoni came and played really well, built a partnership with Haydos (Matthew Hayden), and then (Michael) Hussey and (Subramaniam) Badrinath played crucial innings. If you look at the bowling effort, everyone chipped in and I think they bowled really well, bowled in good areas. All credit goes to the skipper [Dhoni], he handled the bowlers really well. At the end of the day it is a team game and everyone is looking good and hopefully we will do well in the next game.

On whether the CSK total of 165 was good enough on this wicket: We bowled really well and restricted them to 140. I think Sachin showed great commitment and hats off to him, he batted really well but the conditions were difficult. Even Harbhajan Singh batted really well too. But I think we bowled really well, (Ravichandran) Ashwin, Jak (Shadab Jakati), myself and especially Mirando (Thilan Thushara). When you are defending 165 it gives you more confidence. I think no total is safe. Be it 160 or 190 or 147. You need to do well in the fielding department. Whichever team fields well in Twenty20 cricket, they are going to win the championship so I think fielding is really important.

On the importance of the Strategic Time Out: No, if you look at the positive side you do get two minutes and you can plan in that time. And if the batsman is scoring heavily then the break helps the bowler. So it has both its positives and negatives but I think that there are more positives, you can plan in the break time and you also get a bit of rest which helps both the batsmen and bowlers. Even the coaches get time to discuss things so I feel overall it is a nice thing, the two-minute break.

On how helpful it is to have an Indian captain: Yeah it sure helps. If you look at Dhoni he has done well at international level. In the Chennai team, we have (Sudeep) Tyagi representing the country, (Manpreet) Gony has represented the country, even Vijay has played a lot of Test matches, and Badrinath is doing really well. So I think when you know that the Indian captain is there, you put a lot of effort into the team and when he knows that a particular guy is doing well, it gives you the confidence to do well. I am very happy for him, he is doing really well at the moment.

On the fielding effort of the Chennai Super Kings being inconsistent: I don’t think so, we did really well in the last 10 matches. We did really well in Delhi, we did really well today. Overall, fielding is one department of the game where the more you enjoy [it], the better you will do. So I think that we did really well.