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Untitled Document
 Raina played better than me: Hayden
24th Apr 2008 08:01 IST
Agencies
Matthew Hayden's 46-ball 81 earned him the Man of the Match award but the Chennai Super Kings batsman believes teammate Suresh Raina's was a superlative knock in Wednesday's Indian Premier League match in Chennai.
Heaping praise on the left-hander, Hayden said, "He really played a better innings than me. Lot of effort and skill are needed to play like that."
After the hosts lost two quick wickets, Hayden and Raina (53) put on a century stand to lay the foundation for a 200-plus score.
Coach Kepler Wessels too praised Raina and said the youngster had already made his mark in the tournament.
"He has played two good innings in our matches so far. He also has big responsibility on his shoulders when both Hayden and Michael Hussey would be going back to Australia to fulfill their national commitments," Wessels said.
The Chennai side ended on the right side of an edge-of-the-seat thriller after Harbhajan Singh and Abhishek Nayar threatened to gatecrash into their party with a defiant rearguard action. Hayden, however, was not surprised by the Mumbai side's late surge.
"In this format of the game, one is never secured and they came too close to our total. Such situations cannot be avoided."
Nayar, who spoke on behalf of the Mumbai Indians, made it clear that the side was eagerly awaiting the return of regular captain Sachin Tendulkar who is nursing an injury.
"Irrespective of winning or losing, we will be cutting a cake to celebrate Sachin's birthday tomorrow. We really hope that he comes back early," he said. |
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