‘Son of the village’ – Rahul Tewatia’s father reacts after left-hander’s match-winning knock against KXIP

Rahul Tewatia was in tatters in the first-half of his innings against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) on Sunday at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. He played a strike-rate of around 40 when the required-rate was hovering around the 15-mark. He first hit young leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi for a six, but he found momentum after Sanju Samson perished to fast bowler Mohammed Shami.

Thereafter, he laid into Sheldon Cottrell and clobbered him for 30 runs in the 18th over to bring the target down from 51 to 21. Though he got out in the last over by then, the Rajasthan Royals (RR) needed only two runs to win from seven balls. On the back of his 31-ball 53, the Royals chased down 224 and recorded the highest-ever run-chase in the history of the T20 tournament.

I am overwhelmed: Rahul Tewatia’s father

The special knock, without a doubt, has made his father proud, who’s a criminal advocate. His father said that after Rahul played the blinder, he was showered with congratulatory messages. It goes without saying that the love for his son has left him ‘overwhelmed’.

“They told me Rahul was not just my son but that he was the ‘son of the village’. I met so many people and received so many calls on Sunday that I got a headache. I must have met around 400 people who visited my home and must have received about a thousand calls — all congratulating me for Rahul’s performance. I am overwhelmed,” Krishna Pal was quoted as saying in TOI.

Tewatia made his first-class debut in the year 2013, the same year when the Royals picked him up. He was pretty much an unknown entity in the cash-rich T20 league until Sunday when he might have played the greatest knock of his life. Tewatia also picked up three wickets in the match against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the same venue in RR’s opening match.

After making his IPL debut in 2014, he has played 22 matches, scoring 174 runs at an average and strike-rate of 21.75 and 135.94 respectively. With the ball in hand, he has 17 wickets at a decent economy rate of 7.55.