Imagine a scenario where a club cricketer can win USD 1,000 just for hitting three sixes. Crazy, isn’t it? Well, former England captain Kevin Pietersen made this come true, and a club cricketer went home with USD 1,000 after hitting South Africa pacer Kagiso Rabada for three maximums. But it wasn’t as simple as it seemed. The last round of the challenge saw Rabada running in at full force, but a right-handed batter named Dylan stunned the right-arm speedster, which even led to Rabada apologising to Pietersen.
The challenge was simple. Hit Rabada for sixes in all three levels – easy, intermediate and impossible. If any of the batter managed to hit the South Africa speedster for a maximum in all three levels, then he would win USD 1,000.
“I have never felt this much pressure in my whole career,” said Rabada at one point, in a video posted on the official YouTube handle of ‘KP The Switch’.
In the easy level, Rabada bowled absolute pies, and four out of the six batters managed to move to the next round – intermediate. Then three of these four moved to the final round, labelled ‘impossible’.
In the impossible round, Rabada brought all the tricks of the trade and employed yorkers, slower bouncers and wide yorkers. However, the right-handed Dylan hit a six on the final ball of the challenge and won USD 1,000.
“KP, I am sorry, man,” said Rabada after losing the challenge.
Rabada in fine form
Rabada might have gone easy in the challenge laid down by Pietersen, but the pacer has been bowling absolute rockets in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 for the Gujarat Titans. He is currently the second-highest wicket-taker in the 19th edition of the T20 tournament with 21 wickets in 12 matches.
His form with the new ball has been the major reason Gujarat has been in the top four. In the previous fixture against the Sunrisers Hyderabad, he was named as the Player of the Match after taking a three-wicket haul.
“I just leave everything out there for the team. That’s as simple as that. Yeah, rhythm is everything. And for me, it’s about bowling as much as I can, but also preserving myself to be match-ready. But rhythm is everything, and you need to find a way to click somehow. Well, it’s just about finding out the kind of pitch we’re playing on and bowling accordingly,” Rabada said at the post-match presentation.
“But we each have our own natural attributes that we bring as bowlers. And then it’s about seeing how much you can extract from those attributes without looking too far ahead. And then, if your strength is not really working out, you can look at something else. So that’s the sort of package we’re looking at,” he added.