It is not often that AB De Villiers is outshone on the cricket field when he makes a half-century in a T20 game. So how cool is it when a 17-year-old Indian, with fear nowhere near his dictionary, creates more excitement than the great man himself and sends that RCB crowd into raptures.
Sarfaraz Khan came into this IPL with a reputation for scoring runs for fun in the Mumbai maidans, and finally the 17-year-old showed just why he has been raved about with shots of the most outrageous and talented order.
Coming in to bat after Dinesh Karthik had run out De Villiers and when RCB needed someone to go slam-bang to get to a par score or above, Sarfaraz showed just why the IPL is such a great platform for youngsters, tonking the Rajasthan Royals bowlers all over the Chinnaswamy, without fear of reputation.
There was the De Villiers-inspired scoop, and also the Virat Kohli-like boundary over extra cover. There was the belligerent six off a spinner, the kind we always expect Indian batsmen to play, and also that ability to just know where the fielders are and find those gaps with unerring ease. Finally, there was a Sarfaraz's own back of the bat reverse sweep, one similar to the one Dinesh Karthik plays, but not quite.
Sarfaraz reignited RCB's innings, just when it looked like it might get derailed after De Villiers fell for 57 (45b, 9x4, 1x6), with a wonderfully entertaining, exciting and unbeaten knock of 45 in just 21 balls (6x4, 1x6) to help his team to a formidable-even-at-the-Chinnaswamy 200/7.
The chase, with the kind of batting the Rajasthan Royals have and the bowling form that RCB are on, thanks largely to that man Mitchell Starc, would have been a lot of fun to watch, as it so often is in Bengaluru, but in stepped that party-pooper of a rain to render the second innings impossible.
Maybe there was a reason the rain decided to interrupt the proceedings (you know, trying to put a positive spin on things). Maybe even Mother Nature felt that stand-up-and-take-notice kind of innings from Sarfaraz, all of 17 years and 184 days old, deserved the spotlight on its own, without one, or more of the Rajasthan Royals batsmen asking for a share.
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