Bittersweet innings for Chennai hero Raina

A confused Suresh Raina?s near-century paved the way for the Chennai Super Kings? second victory of the Indian Premier League over the Rajasthan Royals on Thursday.

In the second match of a double-header, Raina made 98 in guiding his team to 164-5 after Rajasthan won the toss and sent them in to bat.

He reached his half-century from only 26 deliveries and thought he had reached a ton off 55 balls in the final over - the result of a mistake displayed on the stadium scoreboard.

In fact, Raina was only on 98 when he lifted his bat in celebration. He went big off the next ball - the third-last of the innings - but was caught by Proteas skipper Graeme Smith in the deep and must have been seething when he got back to the dressing room.

Title holders Rajasthan were dismissed for 126 runs with seamer Lakshmipathy Balaji returning a magnificent 4-21 as Chennai secured a comfortable 38-run win.

Kamran Khan, who injured himself bowling, did not bat.

The Chennai bowlers combined superbly, with South African Albie Morkel and New Zealander Jacob Oram picking up two wickets each.

Middle-order batsman Ravindra Jadeja put up a fight for the defending champions with a defiant 37 off 33 balls, but received little support as Chennai took a morale-boosting victory.

Earlier, Rajasthan spinner Yusuf Pathan, who led the attack with a return of 2-17, had done a tremendous job with the new ball, removing Chennai openers Matthew Hayden and Parthiv Patel cheaply.

But Raina and Subraniam Badrinath put on 64 runs for the third wicket to steady the ship.

Badrinath was lured out of his crease by Rajasthan skipper Shane Warne and was stumped by Mahesh Rawat for 29 off 27 balls, but 22-year-old Raina stuck around to anchor the innings.