Suresh Raina announced his return in the Indian T20 League on Saturday, April 10, with a magnificent half-century against Team Delhi, which brought much-needed stability to the Chennai side after losing early wickets.

The southpaw had donned the iconic yellow jersey for the first time since 2019 Indian T20 League, as he had to leave the Chennai bio-bubble just before the 2020 edition began in UAE due to personal reasons.

After a lot of uncertainty persisting for months, Team Chennai had made their intentions clear by retaining Raina ahead of the mini-auction in February and the player has lived up to that trust.

Raina came to the crease after Faf du Plessis was dismissed by Avesh Khan in just the second over. To make things worse, Raina saw Ruturaj Gaikwad getting dismissed in the first ball of the third over as Chennai were reduced to 7/2.

However, the Chinna Thala forged partnerships first with Moeen Ali and then with Ambati Rayudu to steady the ship and consequently brought up his fifty in 32 balls. Mainly targeting the spinners, Raina scored 37 of his runs from 20 balls versus spinners, as compared to his remaining 13 runs against pacers.

Though Raina’s innings came to end with an unfortunate end owing to a miscommunication with Ravindra Jadeja, he had successfully turned back time for millions of cricket fans who poured their heart out into Twitter.

Feature Image Courtesy: Twitter / @IPL

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