Rahul Tewatia and Riyan Parag put up a show with the bat to script Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) thrilling five-wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Dubai on Sunday (October 11).
Chasing 159 to win, RR were reeling at 78/5 after 12 overs. However, Tewatia (45* off 28 balls) and Parag (42* off 26 balls) didn't lose hope and forged a fantastic 85-run partnership to take their team over the line with one ball to spare.
See Also: Warner praises Tewatia and Parag for taking RR over the line while chasing SRH’s 158
Following the win, Parag was seen flaunting his dance skills and the 18-year-old spoke about the same in the post-match conversation with Tewatia for iplt20.com.
“It is a traditional dance of my state Assam. We call it ‘Bihu Dance’. There were some guys here from Assam who have come as a net bowler and I ended up doing it for them in excitement,” Parag told Tewatia, before he taught the latter some moves of the same dance.
During the candid chat, Tewatia gave an insight as to how he went about the chase and he also talked about playing two reverse-sweeps off Rashid Khan’s bowling.
"The partnership was really great, as soon as I came to the middle, I thought of taking it deep. You also had a similar plan and we talked about it. We thought that if are required to score 40 odd runs from the final four overs, then we will have a chance. We were just clear that we will go after the ball which is there in our area," Tewatia remarked.
"I thought about playing reverse sweep of the bowling of Rashid at the last time, it was not a pre-planned move. The second ball I played the same shot as I thought Rashid would not be expecting me to play the reverse sweep so that was pre-planned. The third boundary came as the ball was in my area," he added.
Riyan Parag also reflected on his knock and said he looked to get settled at the crease when he was batting with Sanju Samson.
"Before I went out to bat, we had a chat in the dressing room that if you and I are in the middle, then we will win the match for our side. I was looking to get settled initially when I was batting with Sanju Samson. When we won the match, I celebrated by doing Bihu dance," Parag said.
