On the comeback trail

Of the cricketers on the national selectors' waiting-list, Suresh Raina's name requires an asterisk preceding it. Often over-hyped and later teased by his own mates for being Greg Chappell's favourite, Raina, only 20, found himself bogged down. Easily one of the best fielders in the country, he had to return to Uttar Pradesh after playing his last one-day international against West Indies at home in January this year.

The previous selection panel, headed by Kiran More, backed Raina through his lean times. But he was already on a long leash that was on the verge of snapping: his last half-century came mid-way through his 36-game ODI career, a 53 against England in the final game of the 2005-06 series. In the next 17 games his highest was 40. When Dilip Vengsarkar replaced More in the new panel, he seemed to have decided that the best way to brush off the show-pony tag was to send Raina back to the domestic stable. It was expected that he would come back strongly and fulfill the role of the thoroughbred that he was expected to be.

Much of his potential was in evidence during the first game of the Challenger Series, as he displayed tremendous composure to enable India Blue to overcome initial hurdles. His near run-a-ball 92, which proved to be the difference in a 12-run victory for the Blues, will go a long way as he attempts to retrace his path to the national side.

Four wickets had fallen within the first 12 overs and Raina only had Niraj Patel, followed by bowling allrounder Joginder Sharma, to keep him company. His first boundary came on the front foot off a swinging delivery from Praveen Kumar, and he was severe on anything pitched up on off and middle stump. He brought up his half-century with a single and a few balls later, stepped out to deposit a flighted ball from Subramaniam Badrinath into the midwicket stand for the first six of the match. Along with Patel, he wrenched the initiative back in the Blues' favour and set the tempo for the final assault.

Raina felt that the pitch was slow to begin with, while Mohammad Kaif, the Reds' captain, felt that it was a good pitch for batting. According to him, "The inexperience of the team" tilted the scale in the Blues' favour. Virender Sehwag, the opposition captain, had surprisingly elected to take the first hit on winning the toss, a questionable decision given that the dew could've been a factor as the evening wore on. Sehwag, who played with two spinners, said: "I wanted to set the opposition a target and didn't want to chase under lights."

Himself under the selectors' scalpel, Sehwag departed red-faced after an apprehensive push into the hands of Badrinath at cover off an away-going Kumar delivery. In the previous over, he had played a similar shot off the back foot in statuesque fashion. Low on confidence, he will need to discover his mojo if he's to have a tilt against his favourite team, Pakistan.

Kumar, a versatile allrounder from UP, capped the Sehwag dismissal with an inswinger that trapped Dinesh Karthik, another batsman under pressure, for a first-ball duck. Enter Raina to change the script. He was in control till he fell to a short one. The bouncer that angles away has given him trouble in the past, and he failed to get into position after trying to pivot on his back foot.

Consistency was one thing that Kaif's Reds failed to find after a brilliant start. Kaif said that the onus was on seniors like him and Gautam Gambhir to guide the youngsters along. Gambhir's run-out in the very first over hurt and Kaif couldn't keep his cool after an aggressive start when, by his own admission, the situation demanded that he stay till the end. "The seniors need to take more responsibility in tomorrow's game," he said, in anticipation of a must-win clash against India Green.