Rahul Tewatia of the Rajasthan Royals hits a six against Kings XI Punjab in Sharjah on Sunday.
A one-game roller coaster seems to be just around the corner as Kings XI Punjab are in action. After their thrilling super loss to Delhi Capitals a week ago, the team had to endure a heartbreaking debacle against the Rajasthan Royals, who are chasing the IPL’s highest goal of 223 races in Sharjah on Sunday.
The tie was dominated by a splendid 106 runs of 50 in the first inning from Mayank Agarwal, and was aptly equaled by another 85 of 42 from Sanju Samson filled with fireworks. Special mentions also went to the two skippers: Steve Smith of RR (50 of 27) and KL Rahul (69 of 54), who contributed fast tackles also on a flat Sharjah court. But all of that was overshadowed by Rahul Tewatia (53 of 31), who broke 5 6s in an over at a time when the odds were against him. WI pacemaker Sheldon Cottrell was on the receiving end of the blitzkrieg when his finish quickly saw the required goal of 51 runs from 24 balls that were reduced to just 21 on 18 balls.
Jofra Archer (13 of 3) took over the remaining runs as RR accomplished the unthinkable feat with three balls to spare in the four-course victory.
Chasing 224, RR has to suffer an early setback from England star Jos Buttler, who came into the tournament with a lot of enthusiasm given his recent feats at the top tier. But being fresh out of quarantine, Buttler was only able to handle 4 runs of his short stay, as despite making a strong connection to the bat, he handled Sarfaraz Khan on the side, who somehow grabbed him to score the Sheldon Cottrell relay.
However, that relief was short-lived with Sanju Samson next at No. 3. With the kind of form that Sanju Samson has previously produced on this very ground, the right-hander started his innings with a six and a four to bring the pace to the ball. persecution.
It was almost a mirror image of what Rahul and Mayank did earlier for KXIP when RR hit 69 runs late in the power play, producing some clean hits from both hitters. The pole hammered the powerplays when RR hit 100 and Smith hit 50, but at the cost of the boss losing his wicket on the last ball of the over to Neesham. To Smith’s fault, he shuffled his bat too early on the pitch, bringing it closer to Shami for cover.
However, wickets were a tough buy in this arena and KXIP had a good sense of that with Sanju, who soon crossed 50 as well, still in the middle. Thereafter, it became a one-man show, as the next seven overs saw 61 runs and the right-hander scored 44 of them. Rahul Tewatia was the silent partner on the other end, but that had its impact as running speed continued to increase. Needing 63 runs of 21, Samson tried to play Shami well, but a clever slow delivery saw the batter hit Rahul behind the stumps.
While the hopes were on a seasoned Robin Uthappa (9v4) to take the team home, it was Tewatia who joined the game and it was one more against Cottrell that it took to take the game away from KXIP.
Previously, RR captain Steve Smith’s decision to go bowling first backfired before the pink-clad team could realize it. A combination of two shaped KXIP openers, along with a flat Sharjah track that offered nothing to bowlers, the writing was on the wall from the get-go. Rahul and Mayank took a good measure of the pacemakers for the Royals led by Jofra Archer and, to no one’s surprise, KXIP was sitting at 60/0 at the end of the power play.
Smith turned to his latest bowling star, Rahul Tewatia, for help once field restrictions were lifted. That didn’t bring him a respite though, as a seated Mayank was in no mood to let Tewatia work her magic as she struck the leg spinner for two huge sixes and a cap to alter her line and length.
This set the tone for Mayank, who was soon in his 50s, when he took over innings and broke 28 of 34 KXIP runs in the next three overs to side to 120 at the end of 11.th finished. One could read the sign of concern on Smith’s face, who had already used six bowlers in a desperate attempt to find a breakthrough.
Rahul, on the other end, decided to exercise his presence while shooting a six and a four to get to his 17.th IPL 50 at the end of 12th finished.
The next three overs landed 34 nonstop runs on offer for the Royals, who were too scared to look at the total that came in at a whopping 172/0 at the end of 15.th when Mayank capped it with its first century IPL cap.
When Mayank’s window (106 out of 50) fell on 17th further, thanks to the slow delivery of Tom Curran who landed safely in the hands of Sanju Samson over the middle of the wicket, he brought in the largest opening wicket spot in IPL with 183 (out of 16.3 overs).
Rahul’s innings (69 of 54) came to an end in the next over after he outscored Rajpoot’s delivery to Shreyas Gopal in the third man.
Number 3 Glenn Maxwell (13 of 9) and Nicholas Pooran (25 of 8) made sure the flow of running didn’t stop as the duo broke 3 sixes and so many limits between them to bring KXIP to 223/2 at the end of tickets.
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