Gujarat Titans all-rounder Rahul Tewatia has a habit to clinching victories from the jaws of defeat and he almost pulled out another miracle on Tuesday night. Tewatia hammered a hattrick of sixes off Delhi Capitals pacer Anrich Nortje to almost pull off a sensational win in an IPL 2023 match at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Tuesday night.
Needing an unlikely 33 runs to win in the last two overs, chasing 131 to win, Tewatia smashed the last three deliveries off the penultimate over from Nortje for sixes as the Titans garnered 21 runs from the over. The GT all-rounder reduced the target to 12 runs off the final over.
Hat-trick of sixes in Typical Tewatia style ___
When the @gujarat_titans all-rounder nearly pulled off another sensational finish with the bat _
#TATAIPL | #GTvDC pic.twitter.com/kCAz0VlnMc
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 2, 2023
However, it was the experience of Ishant Sharma which had the final say in the match as he had Tewatia caught at extra cover with the fourth delivery of the final over for 20 off 7 balls to end Titans hopes. DC managed to defend the target and notched up only their third win of IPL 2023, knocking off the defending champions and table-toppers GT by five runs.
Tewatia is no stranger to hitting match-turning sixes. In IPL 2020, the all-rounder shot into fame for Rajasthan Royals, hammering five sixes off Punjab Kings pacer Sheldon Cottrell to win the game for his side.
In IPL 2022, with GT needing 12 to win off the last two balls against the Punjab Kings, Tewatia hammered two successive sixes to win an unlikely win with Odean Smith the bowler paying the price. DC bowler Ishant Sharma later revealed how he managed to outfox Tewatia in the final over.
“I’ve played enough cricket with him so I was just having fun with him. I knew he was going to know what my short ball is, so I knew I had to double bluff him. Otherwise I knew he was the type of batsman who can finish the game for Gujarat. So I was double bluffing him and bowling the balls,” Ishant Sharma said at the post-match presentation.
DC skipper David Warner admitted that he was nervous with Tewatia batting in the middle. “I was nervous there when Tewatia was going off. He’s renowned for that, he always hits the ball nice and clean towards the back end. Our best death bowler at the end has been Anrich. I passed the ball to him. Ishant was so clear with what he wanted to execute and he was able to do that,” Warner said.
