India looking good as team, says Suresh Raina

India’s star batsman Suresh Raina has said that his team will look to play natural game and not to take any unnecessary pressure in remainder of the Sri Lanka tour. The Men in Blue are currently 2-0 up in the One Day International (ODIs), with two more games
to be played later this week.

After playing one-dayers, the two teams are due to meet in a T20 match. Raina, who guided his side to an emphatic victory in the third encounter, stated that there is no need to take extra pressure, adding that India are looking good as a unit.

"We will look to play our natural game. We have three more games to go, two one-dayers and one T20," Raina said at the pre-match press conference.

He added, "We are looking good as a team and if you see we had a plan to score four- five hundreds as individual batsmen and we have done it twice. Virat (Kohli) and Gautam (Gambhir) scored hundreds, Viru bhai (Virender Sehwag) fell short but, our goal is
yet to be reached. The tour is yet to finish. Two more games remaining."

The class left-hander played a match-winning knock in the third game. Batting first, the islanders piled up 286 runs in the allotted quota of 50 overs. In reply, the tourists were looking solid, when Gautam Gambhir played a magnificent ton to steer his side
to the comfortable zone.

However, the Delhi batsman lost his wicket at a crucial juncture and as a result, the pressure started building up on India. Raina took over responsibility on his shoulders, scoring a fine innings of 65 runs.

“I have learnt over the years how to bat with the tail-enders but luckily, in the last game I was batting with Irfan. I knew he is an allrounder so he has done really well.  But for me when you get 15-20 overs I have to bat till the last ball. I have to
bat during the batting Powerplay,” he described.

“So I need to play my shots as well as take singles and twos. If I bat with Mahi (MS Dhoni) then I know I can play big shots because he is there at the other end.  But if I am batting with the likes of [Ravichandran] Ashwin, Irfan, Zak [Zaheer Khan], I have
to take strike in the last three-four overs so my job is to play till the last ball," added the 25-year-old.

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Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on Jul 31 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry