‘Never give in, never write anyone off’ – Anand Mahindra’s motivational tonic after RR’s heist against KXIP

The Rajasthan Royals (RR), on Sunday, September 27, won back-to-back matches in the 2020 Indian Premier League (IPL). The team, led by Steve Smith, won by six wickets with three balls to spare against the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Chasing down a mammoth 224 in 19.3 overs, the Royals also recorded the highest ever chase in the history of the T20 tournament.

To start with the Royals seemed to have regretted their own decision after sending KXIP to bat first. KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal’s 183-run stand for the opening wicket put extreme pressure on the RR bowlers. The latter went on to notch his maiden IPL century off a mere 45 balls. His knock was laced with 10 fours and seven sixes and he got out to right-arm fast bowler Tom Curran.

RR get over the line in thriller

Some lusty blows from Nicholas Pooran and Glenn Maxwell propelled KXIP to the humongous total. In the run-chase, Steve Smith and Sanju Samson shone with 50 and 85 runs respectively. However, the man, who stole the show was none other than Rahul Tewatia, who didn’t lose his cool even when he was straining to find the middle of his bat and had a strike-rate of around 40.

He smashed Sheldon Cottrell for 30 runs in the 18th over and got the Royals back into the game from a stage of near-hopelessness. He got out to Mohammed Shami, but after scoring 53 runs off 31 balls with seven fours. By then the target was down to two off seven balls. In the end, the Royals won the game without dropping much sweat at the death.

In the meantime, business tycoon Anand Mahindra had some words of motivation after witnessing RR’s jaw-dropping run-chase. The 65-year-old chairman of Mahindra group said that one shouldn’t be undermined and asked people to take ‘lessons from life’ from the encounter.

He took to Twitter and wrote, “Everyone who watched this match will understand why millions of eyeballs follow the #IPL. Lessons for life are not in short supply here. Never give in. Never write anyone off. Anything is possible. Accept no limits. Start the week with that spirit.”

Here’s Mahindra’s tweet:

Everyone who watched this match will understand why millions of eyeballs follow the #IPL. Lessons for life are not in short supply here. Never give in. Never write anyone off. Anything is possible. Accept no limits. Start the week with that spirit. https://t.co/56PqCrSgKw

— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) September 27, 2020