With 51 to score off three overs and Mohammed Shami and Sheldon Cottrell likely to bowl them, it would have been over-optimistic for a Rajasthan Royals fan to predict a win. They were already chasing 224, a target never reached in the history of the Indian Premier League batting second irrespective of the result. But Rahul Tewatia, 8 off 19 at one point and 17 off 23 at this stage, believed in himself, probably because he had struck at over 150 between overs 16 and 20 in IPL. Tewatia hit five sixes off Cottrell and one more in the next over, off Shami, to bring up his fifty. He got out, but not before he had lifted the Royals from the quagmire he had himself got them into. His promotion had raised some eyebrows, but it was a necessary move on three counts. First, as he explained after the match, he was the sole left-hander among those with any batting credentials, and Kings XI Punjab had two leg-spinners in their line-up. Secondly, Rajasthan had gone in with only four batsmen and a...
