Belief and desire, Raina's big weapons

It's easy to comprehend why Suresh Raina was one of the four players the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) retained along with MS Dhoni, Murali Vijay and Albie Morkel. The southpaw is a terrier who, till the last ball is bowled, doesn't believe the game is done and dusted. CSK needed someone of that belief on Tuesday when they took on Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the first play-off at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium.

They needed some magic as they were chasing 176 and lost early wickets and despite a stabilising 63-run stand with between Raina and Badrinath, the defending champions were struggling to keep up with the run rate.

Raina provided them with that magic by belting an unbeaten 73 in 50 balls to script an unlikely victory for CSK and enable them to enjoy massive home crowd support for the final on Saturday.

Every batsman has a signature stroke. Tendulkar has the straight drive, Sehwag has the upper cut and the helicopter shot is owned exclusively by Dhoni. For Raina, it is the swish over mid-wicket and mid-on, which he plays after clearing his legs from the path of the ball. He also lofts the ball cleanly over extra-cover. He essayed both those strokes with venom against both Zaheer Khan and Aravind. It may not be a pretty sight, but the ball always disappears deep into the stands.

After winning the man of the match for his heroics, Raina explained how he can play the stroke at will. "I have been practising it a lot with Flem ( Stephen Fleming, CSK coach). He keeps telling me to maintain my shape. I've also worked a lot with Gary. He always told me to just look to hit straight. He made me believe that I could clear the boundary at will. It's important to trust your ability."

Ability, Raina has always had in plenty and it's this ability, coupled with fierce desire that has made him the leading run-scorer in IPL history (1805 runs in 61 matches). He's also the only player to have played in all the matches CSK have played. That's some tribute to his fitness. The 23-year-old is also blessed with oodles of streetsmartness which he put to good use on Tuesday.

He targeted the RCB leftarm-seamers Aravind and Zaheer and hit them either straight or towards the legside, knowing that both those areas had short boundaries. "In Chennai I practised a lot against the low full toss. I have also played against Zaheer and Aravind in first class cricket and Zaheer has always been in the Indian team and I have faced him in the nets a lot. I know what he wants to do against left-handers. My plan was very simple. Look to play straight."

He also had another plan. Come hell or high water, be there till the end.

"The situation was tough. But I knew I had to bat till the end. I had to take the initiative and play strokes. My plan was to stay positive. I wasn't doing a great job finishing games in the last few matches and was getting out in the 20s and 30s.

"It's very important to finish games when the team needs you especially in the quarters, semis and finals. I'm happy that I could deliver. God has been kind."

When Greg Chappell had become India's coach in 2005, Raina was the first player he cast his eyes on and marked him out as a special one and pleaded for more opportunities for the leftie from the selectors and team management.

While the Aussie became a hate figure for the media and some of the team members as the results didn't quite go India's way, one can't fault him for his talent-spotting skills.

Raina's success is illustrative of that.