'Na bhai na’ – A scared Yuvraj Singh after Rahul Tewatia closed in on six sixes in an over

Rahul Tewatia, in the first-half of his knock against the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), had very little clue about what was happening. Forget about hitting fours and sixes, he was straining to even rotate the strike and as a result, the required run-rate kept mounting at an alarming rate. When the required-rate was around 12, he played at a strike-rate of around 40, much to his dismay.

However, he hit Ravi Bishnoi for a massive six down the ground to give a glimpse of the damage he can do. But it was in the 18th over of Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) run-chase when he turned his fortunes around without dropping much sweat. West Indies fast bowler Sheldon Cottrell had to bear his brunt as the latter went for as many as 30 runs, including five colossal sixes.

Rahul Tewatia takes Sheldon Cottrell to the cleaners

Cottrell leaked 24 runs in the first four balls after which he got a breather, bowling a dot ball. Tewatia kept having almighty heaves at every other delivery that came his way. After playing a dot, he again smashed the left-arm speedster for an over-boundary. The target was 51 from 18 balls and Tewatia’s onslaught brought it down to 21 off the last 12 deliveries.

He got out to Mohammed Shami in the penultimate over of RR’s run-chase. But by then, the Royals needed only two runs off the last seven balls. Tewatia, in the end, managed 53 runs off 31 balls with the help of seven sixes. The Royals, captained by Steve Smith, recorded the highest ever run-chase in the history of the IPL, tracking down 224 with three balls to spare.

In the meantime, former Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh lauded Tewatia for the magnificent knock at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. But he was also scared of the southpaw, hitting six sixes in an over of Cottrell. In a hilarious way, Yuvraj thanked Tewatia for missing the fifth ball of the over.

He took to Twitter and wrote, “Mr @rahultewatia02 na bhai na thanks for missing one ball ! What a game congratulations to rr for a spectacular win !!! #RRvKXIP @mayankcricket great knock @IamSanjuSamson brilliant !”

Here’s Yuvraj’s tweet: