Raina more than capable of handling short ball - Fleming

[Andy]

Stephen Fleming, the Chennai Super Kings coach, has attributed Suresh Raina's impressive show in the IPL and the ongoing World Twenty20 to his determination and effort to combat his weakness against the short ball, which was exposed in England last year. Raina was the third-highest run-getter in the IPL and was the Man of the Match in the final, which Chennai won. He followed that up with a 59-ball century against South Africa in St Lucia to seal India's place in the Super Eights. "He knew that he would be attacked with short balls and I felt he is more than equipped to deal with it," Fleming told Daily News and Analysis. "I just had to make him realise his strengths. He went on to turn the so-called weakness into his strength. "We have worked out plans on the areas where we thought he might be attacked. He tried hard at the nets with rising balls to make the right adjustments. He is a hard trier." The adjustments Raina has had to make have not affected his strengths, Fleming said. "That's what good players do. Improvement in one area cannot be allowed to lead to deterioration in another area." Fleming also credited Gary Kirsten for Raina's improvement and said his own role had been to concentrate on the mental aspect of Raina's game. "Suresh has been working on this with Gary Kirsten. My duty has been to facilitate and organise the facilities needed for him to work on those areas. More specifically I worked on the mental part of Suresh and his Twenty20 game. I've advised him on what frame of mind he should be in a Twenty20 format. "Success breeds confidence. The range of shots he plays is a kind of expression of himself. He is able to play them because of his new-found confidence. His level of confidence matches his abilities. He is very positive and is not afraid of playing shots. "He is very hard to bowl to I'd imagine. At this stage, Suresh is well ahead of his age in cricket. I was not even half as talented at that stage." http://www.cricinfo.com/world-twenty20-2010/content/story/458516.html

[Show_stopper]

Raina threat looms large

Sydney: Trained at the Australian Cricket Academy six years ago, Indian middle-order batsman Suresh Raina could well haunt Michael Clarke's men when they face each other in the ongoing ICC World Twenty20 in the West Indies. "It was a very good experience for me, I spent time at the Allan Border Academy, Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden spoke to me, gave me advice, I learned a lot from them. It definitely improved my cricket," Raina told the Sydney Morning Herald. Hayden continues to mentor Raina at IPL side Chennai Super Kings, who won this year's tournament on the back of Raina's man-of-the-match half-century in the final. Many have tipped Raina, 23, to be the leading run scorer in this year's ICC World Twenty20. However, Michael Hussey, another of Raina's IPL teammates, will be advising his national compatriots on the potential weaknesses of the left-hander. "I've had a little bit to do with him and watched him in the IPL, so certainly we'll have to have a few good plans in place because he is playing very well," Hussey said. "He definitely targets a couple of areas so we might have to bowl away from those areas, or try and make sure we've got those covered with fielders," he added. Hussey believes Raina would have flourished at international level without the assistance of the Australian system. "I still think he would have come through regardless, he's got that much talent and ability that whether he was at the academy or not he would've come through and played at this level," Hussey said. ANI

http://cricket.yahoo.com/cricket/news/article?id=item/2.0/-/story/cricket.yahoonews.com/raina-could-haunt-clarkes-men-20100504/

[zubinpepsi]

:hail: raina is the next god.. :woot:

[saneindian]

Keep it going Raina boy. We now expect more from you and back you to do well consistently.

[Sid]

we will see wht happens against aussies on friday,that will be his toughtest test and i would be very happy if he scores against their three 150kmph quicks

[TheWall]

:hail: raina is the next god.. :woot:

There is only ONE GOD!:hatsoff: Raina can only be a very good player.

[hari504504]

Raina was once touted as the left handed Tendulkar..(when he first came in)...but in hindisght so have so many others..

[Roshanrocks]

:hail: raina is the next god.. :woot:

There is only ONE GOD! The rest are just ~~~~~~~~~ "the next" "the future" "the may be" :cantstop:

[gult]

Good to hear it from a cricketer like Fleming..

[gaurav92]

It will be Raina's test tomorrow as to whether he can handle the short pitch stuff well.

[Serani]

Bet he gets < 10 runs.

[Andy]

Bet he gets < 10 runs.

:finger::finger::finger:

[nballa]

i don't see the big deal. only one ball over the shoulder per over is allowed anyways.

[yoda]

i don't see the big deal. only one ball over the shoulder per over is allowed anyways.

you are talking about those which are typically unreachable. the ones in question are those which are short pitched, well directed at the player, which need to played.

[Serani]

i don't see the big deal. only one ball over the shoulder per over is allowed anyways.

Yeh batting in this cow lash tournament should be no probs, if there already been one short ball you can just plant the front foot and swing.

[mastana]

Yeh batting in this cow lash tournament should be no probs' date= if there already been one short ball you can just plant the front foot and swing.

But your hero Gayle likes this form of cricket. :dontknow:

[Serani]

But your hero Gayle likes this form of cricket. :dontknow:

and? I certainly dont.

[vvvslaxman]

Yeh batting in this cow lash tournament should be no probs' date=' if there already been one short ball you can just plant the front foot and swing.[/quote'] Atleast he is not quacking in his boots like West Indies against Zimbabwe spin :winky:

[Show_stopper]

Well I don't think Fleming had Tait on his mind when he made the statement!! But it will be interesting to see if Raina is smart enough to play out Tait. He should be able to make up his strike rate off the other bowlers. I sure hope thats the stratergy he adopts anyway.

[nballa]

But your hero Gayle likes this form of cricket. :dontknow:

Atleast he is not quacking in his boots like West Indies against Zimbabwe spin :winky:

why are you guys getting defensive? this thread is about raina, not the west indian inability to play spin. This is how threads go offcourse.