(ESPNCRICINFO) A 21-year-old and a 22-year-old made the world sit up and take notice. Abhishek Sharma carved up Rashid Khan, Umran Malik roughed up Hardik Pandya. The new kids were gunning for the old pros. And it made this game all kinds of breathtaking.

The result, if anyone cares, is that Gujarat Titans chased down 196 to beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by five wickets. But honestly, this was way more. This was the IPL at its most vivid, pulse-pounding, heart-breaking best; because in the space of 40 overs, we saw the future of Indian cricket and the enduring brilliance of one the greats in T20 history.

Rashid actually did the unthinkable twice, bowling his fifth-most expensive spell ever but then turning around and hitting three sixes in the final over and winning the game off its very last ball.
To get it to that point though, Titans needed Wriddhiman Saha at the top, scoring 68 off 38 and Rahul Tewatia in the middle, plundering an unbeaten 40 off 21.

THE MOST UNREAL BATTLE
Abhishek has come up against Rashid only once before. But that’s in an actual IPL match. Who knows how many times these two had sparred at Sunrisers training. And if events yesterday were any indication, they missed out on a massive money-making opportunity. Charging admission to the nets while those two did battle would have raked in plenty because the 21-year-old kid kept pawning a modern-day master.

Rashid ended his night with figures of 4-0-45-0. Abhishek was responsible for 34 of those runs, which came at a strike rate of 226, a massive improvement on the figure (107) left-handers usually manage against the Afghanistan ace in this tournament.

Titans had done their homework. They knew Aiden Markram was going a mere 115 runs per 100 balls of spin this season. They brought Rashid on to counter his threat, but Abhishek’s presence at the other end completely killed the plan. There was even a moment that signalled loud and clear that the youngster was picking the variations out of the hand. In the 15th over, when a ball was dropped short on leg stump, Abhishek didn’t shape to pull but instead made room for himself and straight-bat lofted it over cover because he had seen it was the googly.

That one moment exemplified this whole head-to-head. Rashid Khan was no mystery to Abhishek Sharma.