A cameo role or a cameo performance in context of film and television is a brief appearance by someone special but when it comes to IPL cricket a cameo is a special performance that is brief and effective. On Thursday 4th April, at the 17th IPL match-off between Gujarat Titans and Punjab Kings in Ahmedabad, there were 2 cameo performances, one for each team. Both cameos were special but only one could win the day and it was the bigger and timelier one by the rookie, making his debut, that did the trick and not the one by an IPL veteran.
Rahul Tewatia is the veteran, an old hand whose style of batting is known to be maverick, and when he gave his cameo for Gujarat Titans it brought back glimpses of IPL in Sharjah from 4 years ago. Tewatia scored a sizzling 23 not out of just 8 balls on Thursday, a cheeky knock that also reminded PBKS of the IPL in 2022 when he had hit 2 sixes of the last two balls taking GT to victory over them. In Sharjah 2020 the Rajasthan Royals had chased down 224 against Kings XI Punjab, thanks to Tewatia. Rajasthan needed 51 runs from 18 deliveries a tough ask for anyone, but Tewatia hit 5 sixes in the 18th over equalling a Chris Gayle record of the maximum sixes in a single over.
The 25-year-old Ashutosh Sharma is the rookie who had his dream debut for PBKS playing a pivotal role in their surprise victory over GT. Ashutosh Sharma, playing his first ever IPL match, partnered with the star of the day Shashank Singh hammering 31 runs of 17 balls in a seventh wicket 43 run stand, that stabilised the Punjab team and gave them a shot at victory. Watching Ashutosh play, one could not have guessed that a mere 4 months ago, when thinking that his career was going nowhere, he had been on the verge of chucking it all up, and then in December he saw himself on TV being ‘bought’ by PBKS at the IPL auction.
It was payback time for Ashutosh Sharma, at the Narendra Modi stadium on Thursday, when he proved that his cameo was bigger than that of Rahul Tewatia.
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