Suresh Raina: Sweep Spot

Time and again,Raina got down on his left knee,got the right leg out of the way,gripped the bat with a firm grip and heaved it across the line of the ball. The slog sweep launched the ball high and beyond the sight of those at the cricket stadium and into the volleyball court,located 40 yards outside the periphery of the boundary ropes beyond the wide long-on area.

Just as the nervy kids watched him unleash the stroke with vicious power and fine-tuned grace,Raina had once worn the same look in the Chennai Super Kings dressing room where Matthew Hayden first brought the damaging proportions of the destructive sweep shot to his notice.

So when his first coach at the sports college,Deepak Sharma,briefed his young wards about the thrashing they could receive at the hands of their left-handed senior,Raina tried his best to earn the same daredevil reputation that the Aussie opener did. With ease and consistency,he dismissed the ball to the volleyball court,leaving the young spinners exasperated.

Sharma,knowing fully well that Raina was practicing to make the stroke his bread-and-butter shot ahead of the Twenty20 games,got the boys into a huddle and told them they were bowling a consistent leg-stump line and playing into Rainas hands. The spinners altered their lines and lengths to an off-stump one,but still,the scurrying to the volleyball courts continued relentlessly once again,thanks to that dreaded slog sweep.

Children conquered,Raina would soon turn the heat towards the burly professionals on the international stage.

In the semi-final of the Champions League at the Kingsmead in Durban Raina keen to establish superiority soon unleashed the slog sweep against the first-change bowler,Virat Kohli. 94 unbeaten runs later,a match-winning knock that played a big part in the Super Kings reaching the final,Raina has never had to look back.

The slog sweep is a shot that is intrinsic to Rainas batsmanship nowadays,much like the on-drive or the backfoot punch through the covers,the quality of which saw him being picked for the Under-19 World Cup. Most times,when Raina has executed this particular shot,sometimes against strike bowlers too,he has enjoyed a great deal of success. Like his unconquered 94 at Kingsmead or the unbeaten 71 against Australia in Visakhapatnam demonstrated,the slog sweep is a shot that gives Rainas innings the momentum or helps make up for a lean over.

I guess it is a shot that people now recognise and talk about when they recall my batting. I started playing the slog sweep regularly out of necessity; first in the Twenty20 version because runs had to be made quickly. I found it very effective in one-day cricket also as I bat lower down the order during the batting power play. It has helped me keep the strike rate high and the asking rate low during chases, Raina said.

While the young batsman also takes pride in his cut shot one which he has been working on very hard and the slash over the covers which has given him a lot of satisfaction against left-arm spinners,the slog sweep remains a favourite. It gets captains and bowlers thinking and can force them to change their strategy. There is an element of risk involved,like all big shots,but I have practiced it long enough to be confident of pulling it off. I have won games playing the slog sweep and I see no reason to change my natural style of play, Raina added.

Coach Sharma had noticed the aggressive nature in the 13-year-old Raina. And even as a teenager,Raina had built his reputation based on an destructive stroke-making philosophy. In his early days,a lot of emphasis was laid on developing a sound technique without curbing his natural aggression. He never used to play the slog sweep in the domestic circuit. His mastery over the slog sweep after his stint with the Chennai Super Kings is a result of him adapting to the nature of Twenty20 cricket and the needs of his batting position lower down the order in ODIs, Sharma said.

It helps that he has a sound technique overall, the coach added. If India is in a tight chase during the World Cup and Raina walks in down the order,a few lusty hits over the mid-wicket region could soon make the stroke a part of folklore.

Achilles Heel
Chin music: dazed and confused!
The short ball has been Suresh Rainas weakness. While he has learnt to a great extent to duck under the bouncer or sway and curb his instinct to pull,Raina has got into a tangle on the bouncier pitches and against genuine pace. A few snorters saw the left-hander lose his place in the Test series against SA,before struggling against Steyn and Co in the following ODI series. However,on the flatter one-day tracks in the subcontinent,the short ball should not be as big a threat to Rainas attacking game,even though fast bowlers from around the world will be tempted to use it. Playing the short ball well is more of a mental thing for me,but I believe that now I am on top of the situation, Raina assured.

Suresh Raina: Slog Sweep
Slog sweep is a stroke born out of neccessity. With the spinners opting to bowl fast and full in the shorter version of the game,the straight bat down the ground stroke,besides providing low returns,is hard to hit. With no space to work with,getting down on the knee and the other foot out of the way of the ball,gives a batsman enough room to swing the bat. After spending a considerable amount of time with Hayden the original slog sweeper in the IPL,Raina has made this his trademark shot.

In Christchurch against New Zealand,Raina entered with the pressure to secure a big total. In just the third ball he faced,he heaved Tim Southee over midwicket. The next ball went into the same area,as Raina finished with 5 sixes in his unbeaten 38,India on 392.

Raina is summoned to boost the score once more in the Colombo ODI in 2009. While MS Dhoni was doing the bulk of the scoring until then,Raina ups the ante after reading a slower delivery from Kulasekara. The result: maximums over the mid-wicket region.

Pravin amre former selector
It was a delectable on-drive that first caught the attention of junior selection committee chairman Pravin Amre. The young Suresh Rainas focus,the power-packed stoke and a gut feel was what made Amre pick the left-hander in the under-19 World Cup squad. It was a risk Amre was taking because Raina hadnt been making big scores consistently. When I look back I think he repaid my faith in him by going from strength-to-strength over the years. I asked him to come and join Air India and play in the Mumbai circuit after the junior World Cup, Amre recalled.

I remember he had a very good on-drive and a sound technique. He has modified his game according to the needs and demands of modern cricket. His slog sweep is the result of his ability to adapt. He always gets into a very good position to play the slog sweep. I havent seen too many other batsmen play the shot so well.