Suresh Raina achieved the feat in his 177th match in the IPL
Suresh Raina became the first player ever to reach 5000 runs in the Indian Premier League as Chennai Super Kings took on the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Chepauk on Saturday.
Before the start of the match, Raina needed 15 runs to go past the barrier and second to him is Virat Kohli, who has 4954 runs to his name.
Rohit Sharma (4493), Gautam Gambhir (4217) and Robin Uthappa (4086) constitute the top five along with the two above.
Raina has been one of the most consistent performers in the league and has scored over 400 runs in 9 of the 11 seasons so far. The southpaw scored 374 runs in 2015 and 399 in 2016. Raina's highest-scoring season came in 2013, when he smashed 523 runs in the 2014 season at an average of 40.23.
Suresh Raina took 177 games to score 5000 runs in IPL cricket
Raina was also fourth in the all-time list of sixes hit with 185 before the start of the season and third in the list of most fours with 448.
Raina has so far smashed one century and 35 fifties from 177 IPL games for Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Lions, whom he represented in 2016 and 2017, when CSK were banned. He is also the player to play the most number of games in the IPL with Mahendra Singh Dhoni at second with 175 games to his name.
Raina was coming into the IPL on the back of some good knocks in the practice games CSK played. The 32-year-old hit 56 runs and lit up the Chepauk as 12000 people came in to watch the match.
On Saturday, Raina came in to bat at No.3 at the fall of Shane Watson's wicket and carried the ship forward.
Raina reached the landmark in the 9th over in the Chennai innings with a single off Umesh Yadav in their chase of 71.
