Suresh Raina’s century for India against South Africa at St. Lucia ensured that the Indians maintained their 100% record in the ICC World T20 and advanced to the Super Eights.

Batting first, after Graeme Smith had won the toss and decided to field first, India lost Murali Vijay in the very first over, while Dinesh Karthik scored only 16 before he was on his way. At the end of the Powerplay, India was 34/2 and looked like they were in a big enough hole.

However, it was the third wicket stand between Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina that brought the Indians back on track. Yuvraj, who had looked ungainly during the IPL looked to be finding his touch, while Raina continued from where he had left off in the IPL and began to pick up the singles and rotate the strike.

Once the pair had got their eye in, it was in the last five overs that the Indians accelerated. 75 came off the last five, as Raina got to a smacking century off only 59 balls. India, who had looked like struggling to get to 150 at one stage, ended with 186/5 in the 20 overs.

Chasing the rather large score of 187 for a win, South Africa opened with Loots Bosman and Jacques Kallis, which was strange, given that the captain Smith was there as well. Bosman failed to get going against the spinners and perished while trying to hit the ball out of the ground in the fifth over, and Kallis and Graeme Smith also struggled to get going.

It was only after the tenth over that Smith started to get a move on, and then Kallis got to his fifty and smoked a couple of sixes. However, with the asking rate going up by every over, the side looked to go after the bowling, but only managed to start losing their wickets in the process.

Smith was run-out, and this was followed by Kallis, Morkel and in the end, AB de Villiers threw his bat around for a 15-ball 31 before getting caught and with that went South Africa’s chances. Raina was the obvious choice for the man of the match.