Twitter Reactions: AB de Villiers and Abdulla take RCB into the final

The first mega clash of the playoffs took place between the top two sides of the season, Gujarat Lions and the Royal Challengers Bangalore. While the Lions had defeated the defending champions in their previous match and were sky high on confidence, the Royal Challengers had ousted the stable Delhi Daredevils in their previous match.

Virat Kohli had no hesitation in putting Lions into bat. RCB bowlers, surprisingly, though, were spot on with their lengths and did a great job by reducing them to 9/3 inside the powerplay. The big guns from the Lions’ den, Brendon McCullum, Aaron Finch and Suresh Raina, were all back to the dugout. It came down to the big burly West Indian Dwayne Smith, who then played the lone ranger in the innings and bailed them out of danger. His 73 off 41 balls was the saving grace for GL on the night that mattered. He was well supported by Dinesh Karthik.

The Lions posted 158 on the board and the target seemed to be an easy one for the batting heavy RCB. But how often have we seen this, all batsmen failing in clusters? Virat Kohli, the man in pink form who had 919 runs to his name in the tournament thus far, could not add a run to his tally. He was dismissed for a duck. Chris Gayle, KL Rahul and Shane Watson, all failed to put up resistance and RCB stuttered at 29/5.

It was Dhawal Kulkarni’s dream spell of 4/14 that wreaked havoc on the night. However, it was the wise man from South Africa, AB de Villiers, who held his nerve to take the team through to the target and to the finals. AB’s knock of unbeaten 79 ensured that RCB made it to the finals after 7 years in the IPL history. Take no credit away from Iqbal Abdulla, who played magnificently as well.

Here is how Twitter reacted to Royal Challengers Bangalore’s thrilling victory:

https://twitter.com/holdingwilley/status/735165597768503297

https://twitter.com/AltCricket/status/735162871366094848