Raina roars back, blasts record 59-ball 126, Ganguly applauds

Kolkata: Suresh Raina is back in form. The T20 specialist batsman, who was struggling with his form and had a dismal domestic season, was at his very best in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Twenty20 game against Bengal.

Roaring back, Suresh Raina blasted his T20-career best 126 off just 59 balls.He hit 13 fours and clobbered seven sixes in his superlative inning.

The left-handed batsman reached his ton in 49 deliveries in the presence of former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly who appreciated the highly magnificent knock with claps.

https://twitter.com/BCCIdomestic/status/955364443063332864

This is the second highest score by an Indian in the shortest format after Murali Vijay's 127 for Chennai Super Kings against Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2010. It is Raina's fourth century in T20 format.

Raina was a failure in Ranji Trophy and the zonal phase of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy before his bat found once again.

Riding on the maverick knock of its captain, Uttar Pradesh posted 235/3 in 20 overs against Bengal in their Super League Group B match. UP defeated Bengal by 75 runs.

Calling Ganguly legend, Raina said that he was lucky to have Dada around.

"I am working hard. Seeing dada (Sourav Ganguly) here today, it's good to see your idol sitting here supporting Bengal. He has done so much for Cricket Association of Bengal. To have a legend like him around is great. I will make a comeback very soon. Really enjoying my batting and hopefully it will be very soon," Raina told reporters on the sidelines of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament.

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It is worth mentioning here that Raina is one of the best batsmen in T20 format for India with over 7,000 runs. He has featured in 18 Tests, 223 ODIs and 65 T20Is for India so far.

The 31-year old batsman has been out of the Indian limited-overs team since February 2017 when he played against England in a T20I in Bengaluru.

Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Chennai Super Kings has recently retained Raina aliong with MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja.