The Tewatia Moment

Photo Credit: ICC / International Cricket Council

What Entrepreneurs can learn from Rahul Tewatia’s heroics!

The Context

The professional Twenty20 cricket league IPL or the Indian Premier League has become a platform for scores of youngsters from across the world to showcase their cricketing talent. Founded in India in the year 2008, the latest edition in the year 2020 is played in the United Arab Emirates owing to the rising covid19 cases in the Indian subcontinent. The twelve seasons of the Indian Premier League have seen new talents emerging every now and then. There is no doubt that the league has been a boon to the cricket at large and to a great extent to the Indian Cricket’s talent pool.

The high scoring match played between Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Sharjah would have been watched as yet another match where KXIP dominated the scores in the form of Mayank Agarwal (106) and captain K.L. Rahul(69). It was yet another exceptional performance by Sanju Samson (85) of Rajasthan Royals. However, there was a twist in the story.

The only left-handed batsman in the RR line-up, Rahul Tewatia (@rahultewatia02) was promoted to No. 4 soon after Smith got out in the last ball of the 9th over. At the end of 14th over, Rahul Tewatia has played 16 balls and scored 7 runs. Even though Sanju Samson (@IamSanjuSamson) was trying to accelerate the scoring by hitting sixes in his flamboyant style, the viewers and TV commentators were getting impatient seeing Rahul Tewatia struggling to hit a ball properly.

The tension in the viewers mind clearly captured ESPNCricinfo commentary “I feel for Tewatia, I really do, because he will become the villain of the match, and he is an earnest cricketer who loves to do whatever he can for the team, but he has been put in an impossible position by the management who have over-estimated his batting drastically. He is watching the ball well, but he doesn’t seem to have the shots”. Similar were the comments by some of the TV commentators.

Silence Before the Storm

It was an eventful 17th over; when it looked Sanju Samson might take the game away from KXIP, the experienced Mohammed Shami broke the hearts of RR fans by bowling a bouncer that saw Sanju Samon perish giving a catch to the wicket keeper. Next came Robin Uthappa. When Uthappa took one run of the first ball he faced that brought in Rahul Tewatia on strike again, viewers would have wondered “not again!”. Rahul Tewatia managed to take 3 runs in the next two balls that brought Robin Uthappa back to strike. Uthappa hit 2 consecutive boundaries to bring in some relief. This means Rahul Tewatia will face the first ball of next over; the 18th over. RR needs 51 runs from 18 balls at this time.

The Storm, and the Terminator

The 18th over gave birth to the Tewatia Moment! The score per ball for the over read like this 6, 6, 6, 6, 0, 6. Silencing his critiques Rahul Tewatia hit 5 sixes in an over lowering the runs required just 21 from 12 balls. When Uthappa got out the next ball, Archer came in as the next batsman and as if inspired by Tewatia Moment, hit consecutive sixes. Even though Tewatia lost his wicket before his team won with three balls to spare, Rahul Tewatia left the social media buzzing with his name.

The Tewatia Moment; aka giving-it-back-to-critics-moment

Even though Rahul Tewatia termed the initial phase of his innings as the “worst 20 balls ever played” during the post-match interview, the way some of the TV commentators criticized will remain in the minds of cricket viewers for a long time. Who other than Entrepreneurs would know this! From the Aha! Moment to the initial slump phase in a startup journey, Entrepreneurs go through critics from all the sides. It’s rare that general public would be able to see the vision what Entrepreneurs see. History chronicles several thousand such stories where people who came to be called as ‘genius’ and ‘success’ later in their lives were once ridiculed for their unique approach or initial failures.

The M. Y. O. B.

One of the lessons learnt from the Tewatia Moment is to M. Y. O. B. This is exactly a lot of successful Entrepreneurs would have done when they face critics – they say first to their self M. Y. O. B and then silently to others M. Y. O. B. The idea of M. Y. O. B or ‘Mind You Own Business’ – if taken as a mantra could help Entrepreneurs to focus on the job at hand and not to be worried about the critics. Next time, when faced with a Tewatia Moment, tell yourself “M. Y. O. B.”.