'I couldn't believe this was an international player': Steyn says Raina 'looked like a school boy cricketer' against MI

While analyzing CSK's Suresh Raina's six-ball stay against MI on Sunday, which included five dot balls and one streaky boundary, former South Africa and RCB pacer Dale Steyn quipped that the batsman looked like a “school boy cricketer” at one point.

Suresh Raina had a torrid outing with the bat during Chennai Super Kings' (CSK) return to IPL 2021 against the Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday. Former South Africa pacer Dale Steyn was unimpressed with the way Raina carried himself and spoke very openly while criticizing him.

'I couldn't believe this was an international player': Dale Steyn says Suresh Raina 'looked like a school boy cricketer' against MI in IPL 2021 match (BCCI/IPL)

In match 30 of IPL 14, CSK skipper MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first. However, things quite didn't go according to plan at first as the “Yellow Army" lost four wickets, apart from losing Ambati Rayudu to an injury scare, inside the first six overs of the Powerplay. Raina was one of the victims.

While Raina scoring 4 runs off 6 balls was disappointing, what was more hurtful to watch was the way he played those six balls. Former RCB pacer Steyn said Raina looked like a 'school boy cricketer' at one point.

“Boult started really well. That ball especially to Raina. He ran in and set that aggressive leg-side field. And you could see immediately that. He (Suresh Raina) didn’t want anything of it. He looked like a school boy cricketer at a point. I couldn’t believe this was an international player doing what he was doing, almost embarrassing that he broke his bat and got out. Had that gone for six, maybe I won’t have said that but it is what we saw,” Dale Steyn explained during a chat on ESPNCricinfo.

Raina walked out to bat in the third over after Rayudu was retired hurt. Facing an on-song Trent Boult, he tucked away the first ball off his hips on the leg side. The second ball was another short ball and this time, Raina managed to take evasive action and duck under the ball. It was the third delivery that showed how uncomfortable Raina was. Boult got one to nip away sharply from the fourth stump line and Raina, without any feet movement, tried to nervously poke at it.

With pressure mounting, Raina tried to slog the fourth ball to leg side but the ball flew off the edge and ran down to the third-man boundary. Raina was off the mark in the most unconvincing fashion possible. He tucked the fifth ball to short fine leg before holing out to Rahul Chahar at point. Just like the fourth ball, he charged down the wicket, made room for himself and tried to take the aerial route through the on side but ended up edging the ball.

Despite CSK's horrible start, they managed to beat Mumbai by 20 runs. Opener Ruturaj Gaikwad's stellar knock of 88 not out steered CSK to 156/6. That was followed by a disciplined bowling performance by Dhoni and Co, as they restricted MI to 136/8 in their 20 overs.