SHARJAH: Former India batsman Virender Sehwag heaped praises on Rajasthan Royals all-rounder Rahul Tewatia for scoring five sixes in an over and changing the momentum of the game.
Tewatia's 53 off 31 balls handed Royals a four-wicket win over Kings XI Punjab. Rajasthan Royals were required 51 off 18 deliveries.
Shelden Cottrell's 18th over changed the momentum of the game as Tewatia smashed five sixes in that over.
He smashed the first six over the long leg, second at the short square boundary, third over wide long-off and fourth over midwicket. Finally, Cottrell got luck and Tewatia missed the slower ball wide outside off. On the last ball of the over, Tewatia smacked a wide length ball over midwicket for another six.
In his innings he smashed seven sixes and changed the fortune of the game.
"What a redemption. Such is cricket and such is life, changes within minutes," Sehwag tweeted.
Sanju Samson also played a brilliant knock as he amassed 85 runs off 42 balls including seven sixes and four fours. Skipper Steve Smith also scored a half-century.
Jofra Archer scored 13* runs off three balls in the end while Tom Curran remained unbeaten on 4* runs.
Earlier, Mayank Agarwal's maiden IPL ton guided the side to 223/2 in their allotted twenty overs.
Agarwal and KL Rahul scripted the highest opening stand for Punjab in the tournament's history. The duo had a 183-run stand for the first wicket. Agarwal and Rahul also registered the second-highest opening stand in the IPL.
Previously, Adam Gilchrist and Paul Valthaty had the record of the highest opening stand for KXIP. They had 136 runs for the opening wicket against Deccan Chargers (now SunRisers Hyderabad) in Hyderabad.
Agarwal played a knock of 106 runs off 50 balls including seven sixes and 10 fours. He was dismissed by Tom Curran in the 17th over.
In the next over, Rahul too departed after scoring 69 runs with a striker rate of 127.77. He was scalped by Ankit Rajpoot.
Glenn Maxwell and Nicholas Pooran played some good hand in the last overs and remained unbeaten on 13* and 25* runs respectively.