Rajasthan Royals’ Rahul Tewatia was the toast of the nation on Sunday, September 27, as his amazing zero to hero innings against King XI Punjab (KXIP) helped his team chase down a mammoth and record target of 224 runs in Sharjah.
Tewatia struggled to get going for the first 20-odd balls he faced in the tough chase, but out of nowhere found top gear in the last few overs. He even hit Sheldon Cottrell for 5 sixes in an over when 51 runs were required in the last 18 balls and turned the tide of the game in RR’s favor.
Until that over, Tewatia was being trolled mercilessly on Twitter by fans and cricket experts alike as they were questioning the logic of sending Tewatia ahead of much better hitters like Jofra Archer and Robin Uthappa.
IPL 2020: WATCH – ‘Later realised I could have hit Sheldon Cottrell for 6 sixes’, says Rahul Tewatia
Harsha Bhogle, the eminent commentator had at one point said on Twitter that Tewatia was losing the game for RR with his inability to get going, but then was delighted for him as he turned the game around.
Before that, Bhogle had praised the innings from Mayank Agarwal, who made a century, and KL Rahul, who continued his good form. He had mentioned, “This isn't just slogging. Quality batting. The ground never seemed so small when we were covering cricket there in the 90s!!”
However, someone decided to take a subtle dig at Bhogle’s comment on the size of the ground and it was none other than little master Sachin Tendulkar who said that no one thought RR would chase 223 with 3 balls to spare.
And he pulled Bhogle’s leg a little as well, tweeting, “Well done @rajasthanroyals & @rahultewatia02.Who would have imagined #RR chasing 223 with 3 balls to spare? Harsha, may be the ground got smaller in the second innings.”
Meanwhile, Harsha Bhogle criticized the amount of hatred and trolling he received for his comment that Tewatia was losing the match for RR at one point, which was according to him a valid observation, and wrote a lengthy post on the same on Facebook and shared it on Twitter as well.
