'It's Your Day, Go And Win The Match For Us' - Suresh Raina Recalls Sachin Tendulkar's Encouraging Words Before Batting vs Australia In 2011 World Cup Quarterfinal

Former India cricketer Suresh Raina precisely remembers legendary batsman and former teammate Sachin Tendulkar’s words before the left-hander walked in to bat in the memorable 2011 World Cup quarterfinal game versus Australia.

Though Suresh Raina didn’t start the World Cup in the first eleven, during the knockout stages he replaced the out-of-form Yusuf Pathan in the eleven and played a couple of crucial knocks in the quarterfinal and the semifinal.

I felt like it was a blessing from God: Suresh Raina

The southpaw remembers what the batting maestro had told him during the chase of 261 runs against the defending champions Australia. He was spurred on by Tendulkar’s confidence-booster and went on to make a match-winning contribution.

“I was sitting next to Sachin Tendulkar. Virender Sehwag was sitting next to us. Gauti bhai got run out, and then Mahi bhai walked back in. So, I was padding up,” Suresh Raina told host Gaurav Kapur on the latest episode of 22 Yarns Podcast.

“Sachin paaji put his hand on me. He was wearing Sai Baba Ji’s kada. He said to me ‘it’s your day, go and win the match for us today. I think Suresh, it’s your day.’ So, as soon as that happened, I felt a miracle happening. When I was walking in, Yuvi paa said ‘chhodna nahi hai’. I said ‘theek hai paaji, will try our best,” he further recalled.

Suresh Raina walked in at a precarious situation on the score of 187/5 after MS Dhoni’s wicket. He didn’t go into a shell not allowing the pressure to get to him, and with an in-form Yuvraj Singh on the other end, the youngster just needed to play the supporting act. And he did it perfectly, scoring 34 crucial runs in a 74-run sixth-wicket stand with Yuvraj.

He says that those words from Tendulkar were like a “blessing from God” as he helped India win the quarters. Suresh Raina then played another vital hand of 36 runs against Pakistan helping India put up a competitive total of 260, which proved to be 29 runs more than what Pakistan managed.

“When we started batting, we started taking twos, fours, and we started feeling support from the crowds. The more we were building our partnership, the more crowd started cheering for us. We got the momentum in the match, and as soon as the match got over and we won, I felt like it was a blessing from God,” the CSK batsman added.

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