Long before T20 cricket even became a norm, way back in time before the shortest format of the game became the force leading to its biggest impact, an Indian stamped his authority over a format that would in the years hence, become the necessary saviour of Cricket.
He isn’t someone who in his prime, wore long locks, someone who came from Jharkhand and would eventually move a cricket loving planet in awe with his tactical skills.
This wasn’t the man who became the first batsman ever to hit six consecutive sixes in the sport’s briefest format; the prince of batting who finds in Gautam Gambhir, a die hard fan much like dozens of cricket lovers.
And neither is he the God of batting, the Maharaja of Calcutta or the man identified as the Wall of Indian cricket.
Fourteen years back in the day, precisely on May 2, 2010, one of the finest strikers of the cricket ball and a batsman who had been as powerful as he was graceful, achieved a feat that Indians pride themselves on and his opponents regard to this very day.
Nearly a decade back in the day but on this date, Suresh Raina achieved a feat so massively impactful and loud in impact unlike his easy going and happy-go-lucky personality that it would be feted with resounding applause from all corners.
In striking a majestic century against South Africa, miles way from the breezy comfort of playing in sub-continental conditions, the blazing left hander became the first ever India batsman to strike a century in T20 international cricket. It was an inning that had pure class about.
It was an inning that was as majestic to watch as it was difficult to subdue. Taking merely 60 deliveries in its conception, which is factually speaking, no more than 10 overs, Raina struck a whirlwind 101 runs.
It wasn’t always that a batsman as prolific and attacking as Yuvraj played second fiddle to another; but in as useful middle order stand of 88-runs, while Yuvraj was the constant strike rotator, it was Suresh Raina who played the main wrecker-in-chief for India as the side docked up an imposing total of 186 runs out there.
Source– CricTracker
That Raina’s powerful, brave ton that had strokes all around the wicket came in a T20 World Cup, was further evidence of the high impact of the powerful knock. In what was just the second ever edition of the glorious ICC T20 World Cup event, it wasn’t all that easy for Suresh Raina out in the middle.
By the time he had walked down to the wicket, India were already wobbling at 32-2.
What followed not long after was a captivating, very Raina-esque artistic exhibition of glorious timing and powerful hitting; a show of batting that had nothing held back, be it against Steyn or Morkel. What was rather interesting about Raina’s fluent and timely hundred is that he didn’t operate in some John Wick mode from the word go; in the first half of his inning, he’d only collected 19 odd runs from 22 deliveries.
The late fury amplified by free hitting strikes and impactful strokes all around the at Gros Islet ground in the West Indies soothed the strain caused to the indian line up thanks to an early loss of wickets and when it seemed that the unit desperately lacked some batting impetus.
True to much of his career blossoming amid testing times, Raina, it could be argued, reserved his best against one of the best bowling attacks in the world in the form of South Africa.
One of the key tenets of his thunderous knock was the fact that Suresh Raina notched up his three figure milestone by hitting a huge six in the final over of India’s inning.
You figure the true impact of an inning is when it actually contributes to a team’s win; in Raina’s case, his bowlers helped his side to successfully restrict South Africa to 172.
Truth be told, whenever world cricket- including doting fans and expert pundits- recall May, the second, they always remember the genius that is a certain Brian Charles Lara, it being his birthday.
But must we also remember to tip the hat to a cricketer and his incredible effort that perhaps deserves to be celebrated just as much as the Prince of Trinidad himself.