Ashutosh Sharma pulled off a miraculous heist for Delhi Capitals against Lucknow Supergiants in Vizag. The 26-year-old, who plays for Railways in domestic cricket, hit a stellar 66 not out off 41 balls that brought Delhi Capitals back from the dead on Monday night. His breathtaking innings left Delhi Capitals’ vice captain Faf du Plessis in amazement.

“I’m definitely going to drink some more masala tea to make sure I can hit the ball like the boys do at the end,” Du Plessis joked at the post-game briefing. “As an overseas player, one thing that’s remarkable for me to watch is the amount of Indian players that are so powerful and they have the ability to just strike the ball so easily. It wasn’t an easy pitch. There was a lot going on, but the two boys at the back end there, just the way they came in and (were) just effortlessly hitting boundaries.”

It was the contentious Impact Player rule that allowed Ashutosh to play the innings of his life.

He changed gears dramatically after collecting 20 runs off the first 20 balls he faced. The last 11 balls he faced yielded 46 runs as he finished the game with a six over the bowler's head and the majority of his five sixes came down the ground.

“A lot of the cricketers, if you ask them, they would complain about the [Impact Player] rule in the IPL but this is obviously why that rule is there – for games when you think that you’re completely dead and buried, someone comes in and plays like that,” Du Plessis said.

“To be honest, when I looked at the wicket and saw how much the ball was gripping and losing five wickets, I thought it was going to be an almost impossible task. But it’s even great for the old brain of mine just to make sure that you can never be out of a game completely. The extra batter really makes a big difference,” Du Plessis added.

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