AB de Villiers inspires SA to chase 492 despite 4 early wickets, gets trolled

England on Day 3 of the third Test set the Proteas a humongous target of 492 runs to win. The Oval crowd witnessed spectacular fifties from the likes of skipper Joe Root, debutant Tom Westley and wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow earlier in the second innings. This saw the English total propel to 313/8 before Root decided it was beyond the reach of the South African batting line-up.

On the other hand, the Proteas were off to a poor start. Opener Heino Kuhn was dismissed cheaply as he was bowled by Stuart Broad. Hashim Amla, on the other hand, tried to be defensive for the most part of his innings. However, that didn’t work for long as he handed one to second slip where Root held on to a splendid catch.

However, the misery didn’t end yet for South Africa. Ben Stokes after some stupendous batting in the first innings continued his fantastic performance with the ball as well. He gave them consecutive setbacks in the form of Quinton de Kock and Faf du Plessis to put South Africa further deeper in trouble. While de Kock was bowled via a quick on point yorker, Faf for some reason shoulder armed once again and was trapped in front of the stumps.

With a target of 492 and almost half the side back to the pavilion, it seems really difficult for the Proteas to stage any kind of comeback. While Dean Elgar and Temba Bavuma are still at the crease, the target remains way beyond their reach.

However, ODI skipper AB de Villiers who has chosen some time off Test cricket had an altogether different perspective as he tweeted out that there was still a possibility of a Proteas win. He urged the batsmen on strike to keep fighting as they had achieved it in the past.

Here is AB’s tweet

We can still do it if we don't lose more than 4 today. Keep fighting boys, we've done this before! @tbavuma10 & @deanelgar there at the end

— AB de Villiers (@ABdeVilliers17) July 30, 2017

However, ABD ended up getting trolled on Twitter. People questioned him as to why he was tweeting rather than playing the game. Others couldn’t find the logic behind his tweet as the game seemed to be well out of the Proteas reach.

Here are some of the replies to AB de Villiers’ tweet

They have done this before with you batting in the middle, not tweeting about it.

— Shubh AggarWall (@shubh_chintak) July 30, 2017

Why aren't you playing?

— Jack Mendel ? (@JackMendel4) July 30, 2017

You losing alot of respect from alot of people in this https://t.co/iIudYf0Zcd should be out there.Not tweeting absolute shit.all bout the $

— Evan Williams (@EvanWilliams10) July 30, 2017

Have you been drinking?

— Nic Campbell (@niccampbell58) July 30, 2017