Still waiting on his chance to make a comeback to the national team, batsman Suresh Raina on Monday, 25 February, became the first Indian cricketer to score 8,000 runs in T20 cricket.
The 32-year-old achieved the feat during Uttar Pradesh’s Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy match against Puducherry in New Delhi.
With 8,001 runs in 300 T20 matches, Raina is the sixth-highest run-scorer in the shortest format, behind Chris Gayle (12,298), Brendon McCullum (9,922), Kieron Pollard (8,838), Shoaib Malik (8,603) and David Warner (8,111).
Moving closely behind Raina is Indian captain in all formats Virat Kohli, who currently has 7,833 runs in 251 matches.
After scores of 5, 54* and 1 in the ongoing tournament, Raina was dismissed for 12 in UP’s Group E match. However, captain Priyam Garg's 54 off 30 balls guided Uttar Pradesh to a seven wicket win over Puducherry.
Opting to bat, Uttar Pradesh rode on Garg and openers Upendra Yadav (36) and Samarth Singh's (29) knocks to post a commanding 179 before their bowling attack spearheaded by Saurabh Kumar (4/14) restricted Puducherry to 102 for six.
The top-order of Puducherry failed and the middle-order, too, were unable to stitch a match-winning partnership. Fabid Ahmed was the top-scorer with an unbeaten 25.
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