New Delhi, October 12, 2020: ‘Doing a Tewatia’ is a phrase that has become a part of the cricketing pop culture over the last two weeks. It simply refers to a remarkable turnaround, when a cricketer turns a seemingly impossible situation around. By that metric, Rahul Tewatia didn’t exactly ‘do a Tewatia’ on Sunday (October 11) but he was on hand to play a starring role in yet another Rajasthan Royals heist.
In terms of the equation, the task wasn’t as hard as the demons, personal and the opposition, he conquered against Kings XI Punjab more than two weeks ago. The circumstances were different and so were the challenges. But this time though, he had someone equally impressive at the other end.
This was an extremely important game for Riyan Parag. After impressing in his role as a finisher in IPL 2019 for the Royals, he was touted as one to watch out for. Only 17 last year, Parag displayed maturity that belied his age and came up with some handy knocks. However, the golden-boy Parag quickly became the fall guy Parag at the start of IPL 2020 as the Royals lurched from one defeat to the next.
It is not like the Royals suddenly didn’t rate him. In fact, they see a lot of potential in investing in Parag going ahead. He is involved in most of their marketing campaigns alongside the big names. His popularity saw a spike in the fan base for the Royals in the north east – a region where cricket plays second fiddle to football more often than not so much so that the franchise wanted to tap into that potential for a huge market by succeeding in their request to play a couple of home games at Guwahati.
However, four successive defeats in the ongoing campaign forced them to press the panic button and the axe fell on Parag. It stemmed from the fact that the Royals have been steadfast with some of their plans this season. They want to give their best batsmen every chance to face most of the 20 overs available. They sprung a surprise at the start of the tournament when Steve Smith continued to open alongside Jos Buttler. And on Sunday, it was Ben Stokes who slotted straight into that role in his first game of the campaign.
While the move is positive and the rationale behind it is understandable, Royals do not have the luxury that some of the other teams have in the IPL. Kolkata Knight Riders have Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik and Andre Russell to finish their innings. Mumbai Indians have Kieron Pollard and the Pandya brothers. Royals have had an out of sorts Robin Uthappa, an inexperienced Tewatia and Parag to shoulder the finishing duties.
Against Royal Challengers Bangalore last week, Buttler, Smith and Sanju Samson were all back in the pavilion within the first 25 deliveries of the contest. Three days later, Smith and Samson were gone by the end of the third over and on Sunday, the three overseas big guns were dismissed again in the powerplay leaving that young middle order to rescue the side.
Already down on morale, a fifth straight loss was on the cards against a bowling attack that has slowly regained its status as one of the best in the competition. When Tewatia joined Parag out in the middle, Royals needed 81 runs from the last 8 overs of the chase. Two of those were to be bowled by T Natarajan and Rashid Khan, who had already picked two wickets by then, had one over up his sleeve. The pitch was slow and didn’t allow hitting through the line as easily as the one at Sharjah did. But after 19.5 overs, it was Parag who broke into a traditional Assamese dance in celebration after smashing a six to end RR’s losing run.
The maturity that earned a lot of praise almost 18 months ago came to the fore again in testing times. Not even one boundary attempt was made for the first three overs into that partnership as the 18-year-old himself set himself up to take the chase deep. “When I went into bat, after a few balls, I had a clear mind that I wanted to go after the 16th over,” he said after the game. “Rashid was bowling well, the spinners were bowling well, the wicket was slow as well. We just had to target the fast bowlers and the plan worked out perfectly.”
After receiving a reprieve earlier in the over, Parag finished off the 15th with his first boundary of the day – a six over deep midwicket. The plan was clear. The pair target the seamers with the Rashid threat looming large. Sandeep Sharma bowled the 17th and the duo took advantage again. While Tewatia smashed a six, Parag hit consecutive fours to turn on the heat. The equation suddenly read 36 off 18 and the Royals were back in the hunt. With the confidence now brimming, Tewatia caused further damage and sprung a surprise by taking on Rashid for three successive boundaries according to the reports published in cricbuzz.com.
Tewatia had asked Parag to hand him the strike against the legspinner so that he could take his chances and the move worked out to perfection. Tewatia made it a lot more easier in the following over by taking on Natarajan as well with Parag finishing off the chase in the final over. In the end, Tewatia hogged the limelight for his encore but not many would have noticed Parag marginally edging the left-hander in terms of strike-rate while scoring almost identical runs.
“He was magnificent,” skipper Smith said after the game on Parag. “It wasn’t the easiest wicket. Was a bit slow and the square boundaries here are quite big too. He was busy at the start of his innings which we wanted him to be. And then we’ve seen how powerful and innovative he is with the different shots he can play. Proud of him that he could come back in and score some runs straight up. Hopefully it sets him up for a good finish to this IPL.”
Smith will hope the win sets the entire team up for a good finish to the tournament. He and the management may have made one too many teaks to that batting order so far. But with Tewatia, and now Parag, showing they could be trusted upon, the big batsmen at the top may just break free from their shackles and turn on their best.
