Watch: Suresh Raina effected a trademark direct-hit runout while standing at covers in yesterday’s (August 19) US Masters T10 League encounter between California Knights and Texas Chargers in Lauderhill.
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Having elected to bat first, the California Knights led by Raina put up a mammoth 158-1 on the board from their 10 overs, courtesy of a 31-ball 64 not out by Jacques Kallis, and a 28-ball 76 not out by Milind Kumar. Slated to come out to bat at No.4, Raina’s services were not needed in the first innings.
The Chargers’ run chase began in entertaining fashion as Mohammad Hafeez was dismissed second ball by Peter Siddle before Ben Dunk and Mukhtar Ahmed managed to get the score to 19-1 after the first over.
However, none of the Texas batters could go past 33 and none of them beyond the top four could even get into double digits as they eventually finished on 110-8, well short of the target. Ashley Nurse was the pick of the bowlers for California as he took 3-12 from his two overs.
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Raina, who was leading the California Knights and was stationed at cover in the last over of the match, got an opportunity to come into the game and get grabbed it gleefully. He had taken a good catch at deep mid-wicket earlier in the innings to dismiss Mukhtar in the fourth over. This time, he effected a classic run out that turned back the clock to the good old days of Raina’s youth.
Fidel Edwards dug out a Pawan Suyal yorker to Raina at cover, who attacked the ball, made a clean pickup, and hit the stumps at the non-strikers’ end. Edwards had already given up midway through the run and was found well short of his crease.
The Knights won the game by 48 runs, a massive margin in the T0 format.
