Turning Point: Tewatia's Sixes!

For the first time this IPL 2022 season, a game came down to the very last ball of the tie.

• GUJARAT TITANS-PUNJAB KINGS SCORECARD

The equation was simple -- six required off the last ball, maximum or bust.

As Odean Smith raced in to deliver the final ball, Rahul Tewatia shifted across the crease and picked up the ball outside off and slog-swept it right off the middle of the bat, sending it sailing for what seemed like aeons before it landed deep into the galleries resulting in the most decisive six of the match.

Pandemonium ensued as the Gujarat Titans bench erupted and the players made a bee-line for Tewatia -- even before the ball had cleared the ropes.

On the other side, their Punjab Kings counterparts were shell-shocked and slowly coming to the realisation that they had blown what seemed like a victory well within their sights.

As the camera zoomed in on Gujarat Captain Hardik Pandya -- rooted to his seat with a look of disbelief on his face as Tewatia was swarmed by his team-mates -- it was hard to believe what had just transpired.

'The kind of ups and downs happen, I think I have now become used to. It was Kings' game, some sympathy for them losing this,' a still dazed Pandya said in the post match interview.

Fresh off the twin blows of losing both Shubman Gill and Pandya in quick succession at the death, Tewatia delivered when the odds were heavily stacked against him.

12 needed off the last two balls.

Both deliveries with met with clean swings, right off the middle of the bat with the batter showing impressive composure in the face of immense pressure.

What exactly was he thinking, you ask? 'There was nothing to think!' Tewatia exclaimed in the post-match interview, adding, 'Just go there and hit sixes, that's what me and David where thinking. I planned against Smith... The last ball was off the middle of the bat, and I knew it was six. The first ball he bowled was wide outside off, and so I thought the last ball was going to come there too.'

Clarity of vision? Never say die attitude? Whatever the case, Tewatia's heroics capped off a remarkable victory for Gujarat, making them the only unbeaten team in the league this season.

• IPL 2022