Published: Oct 05, 2014, 12:48 AM (IST)
Edited: Oct 05, 2014, 12:48 AM (IST)
Oct 5, 2014
After Brendon McCullum, teammate Faf du Plessis praised Suresh Raina for his unbeaten 62-ball 109 which helped Chennai Super Kings (CSK) cruise to an eight-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Champions League T20 2014 (CLT20) final.
“Oh, cometh the hour, cometh the man – Suresh. It’s probably the best T20 knock I have seen in my career. He has played some fantastic knocks, but to bat like that in a final is phenomenal. He is a big-match player and he has delivered for us time and again,” Du Plessis was quoted as saying by the official website of the CLT20.
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Du Plessis added that CSK played good cricket overall in the tournament. At one stage, CSK were clinging on net run-rate and were almost knocked out when Lahore Lions were on the cusp of defeating Perth Scorchers by a huge margin in the group stage.
I think we played really good cricket in the league stage. We were unfortunate to have that washed out game against Lahore Lions. We thought had we played them, we were in a good space to beat them. So, we felt very unlucky to have not played that game. Having a good net run-rate helped us. With the kind of cricket we were playing, we were expecting to finish at the top once we were in the semis,” he said.
With McCullum and Dwayne Smith firing at the top, Faf du Plessis who used to bat up the order was brought own to hold the middle-order. Du Plessis credited this changing roles for his growth as a batsman against spinners. I have learned a lot about my game, playing that role especially playing the spinners. Most of the time when I come in it’s the spinners bowling. That has improved my game against the spinners, which will be very helpful for me at the international level. My game is improving because I am batting at different positions,” said the South African.
Complete coverage of Champions League T20 (CLT20) 2014 here
