“It’s a wicked game, sometimes the luck goes your way. You can easily go from a hero to the villain; you just enjoy the good days I guess,” said Marcus Stoinis after his all-round performance for the Delhi Capitals in the second game of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL).
While Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) Rahul Tewatia had almost become the latter but ended up being the former, after his own admission that the first half of his innings was the worst 20 balls he has played in his career, before smashing five sixes in an over.
Rahul Tewatia came in to bat at no 4 after RR lost the wicket of skipper Steve Smith, when the side required 124 off 11 overs. He was sent in to tackle Kings XI Punjab’s leg-spinning duo, but wasn’t able to time it. He was trying too hard and was 8 (19) before he hit his first six on the penultimate ball of the 15th over and ended up scoring 53 (31).
“I couldn’t do the job which I was sent for (taking on the leg-spinners), in the early part of the innings and, obviously, was under a little pressure. But I knew that if I can get one out of the middle of the bat, I could have got going,” said Tewatia after his heroics on Sunday.
He said that his partners on the other end, Sanju Samson and Robin Uthappa showed faith in him and were giving him confidence that he can hit after he got one from the middle.
“There was self-belief from Sanju and Robin Bhai, that once I hit one, I’ll not stop at that (sic). I knew that the game could change as the wicket was nice to bat on and 18-19 could have been chased down in the end.”
When asked if he was under pressure before going in, he said that he enjoys his batting and added that a little pressure did creep in when he looked at the scorecard after he was batting at 8 runs off 19 balls.
“There was a little pressure as the run rate was very less, after a great partnership between Steve Smith and Samson. But yes, I knew I had taken the time. If I wasn’t able to time well, I will try my best to win the game for the team after hitting at the back-end.”
He said that during the time-,out he told Smith that he wouldn’t get out just because he wasn’t able to bat well.
“I am aware of the impact that I can have in this side and wanted to instill the trust shown by the management by promoting me to the batting order. So, when I started hitting, I just kept going and later realised that I could have hit six 6s in the over,” he chuckled.
Tewatia’s innings was a classic case of not giving up and staying mentally strong when you realise that it was not working the way you would have thought I would. And, after not being able to hit the ball out of the 30-yard circle for the first 19 balls of his innings, he ripped apart Sheldon Cottrell by milking 30 runs off the over and pulling his side back from the hole he had almost dug for them. After his innings, his three-year-old tweet resurfaced in a Jofra Archer-esque manner just going with the situation.
The appreciation, apologies and reactions poured in for Tewatia after his knock from the cricketers, fans and experts:
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