'You need experience:'Suresh Raina on Chennai being marked as 'aged team'

"People have been saying that our team is quite aged, but you need experience. All credit goes to Dhoni as you can see he is playing freely. In the IPL, he has shown that he can still play very well despite being 35-36," said SureshRaina, explaining the fact that why IPL teamChennai includes aged players.

As Chennai qualifiedfor play-offs for theninth time, since IPL's inception, Raina saidit is equally important to have experience and cites team's performance in the ongoing league.

Currently, the 'Yellow Brigade' have players above 35 years of age which include— Mahendra Singh Dhoni (36), Shane Watson (36), Dwayne Bravo (34), Harbhajan Singh (37) and Imran Tahir (39).

When asked about their current performance and strategy for the upcoming games, the left-handed batsman said thathalf work is done by qualifying, but the ultimate goal is to take the golden trophy home.

"Nobody remembers the runner-up. Everybody looks up to the winner. If we win this time, then the harsh memories of the finals that we lost in previous editions of IPL will go away," said Raina.

Altogether in IPL, Chennai have made their way to finals six times, out of which only two times they managed to emerge victoriously.

The star cricketer heaped praise onhis current IPL team's skipper MS Dhoni and Indian Cricket Teamcaptain Virat Kohli.

"Having Dhoni with Virat changes the morale of the Indian cricket team. In South Africa, we won the T20s and ODI series. We even defeated them in one Test match," he said.

"Virat is a player, who does not like to lose. In the current scenario, the cricket community in India has become fearless," he added.

Other than Chennai, Hyderabad too qualified for semi-finals with 18 points in IPL.

The finale of IPL 2018 will be played on May 27at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.