Twitter Reactions: AB de Villiers' Tshwane Spartans lose the tournament opener

The Cape Town Blitz created history by becoming the first-ever team to win a game in the Mzansi Super League. The MSL 2018 kicked off in a grand fashion after all the deliberations over the years. However, the tournament opener turned out to be a one-sided encounter disappointing many.

The match was all about AB de Villiers against the Cape Town Blitz. The Spartans’ skipper tried hard to take his team over the line. But, it is never easy for only one man for battle out the eleven men in the opposition. Pakistan’s Mohammad Nawaz, who scored a half-century and picked one wicket was the ‘Man of the Match’ in the first MSL game ever.

Verreynne, Nawaz propel Blitz

In the absence of Dale Steyn for this match, the Cape Town Blitz were put into bat first by the opposition. Although skipper Dawid Malan was dismissed for just five runs, Janneman Malan and J Smith played some handy innings. They scored 19 off 12 and 25 off 27 respectively.

Despite the good partnership, the runs came at a rather slow clip. This is when Kyle Verreynne and Mohammad Nawaz joined hands together and added 100 runs in only 58 balls. While the wicket-keeper batsman was unbeaten on 53 off 34 balls, Nawaz raced his way to 59 runs at a slightly better strike-rate. George Linde’s 4-ball 13 at the end helped the Blitz finish with 180/4 on the board.

Are the Spartans over-reliant on ABD?

In the chase, the Spartans lost both their openers cheaply and it was a very slow start to their innings. They were scoring at under six runs an over in the first eight overs before De Villiers decided to take the attack to the opposition. However, he didn’t have many who would complement him and the required run rate kept on creeping up.

Dean Elgar got out after scoring 32 off 26 balls. The skipper was next to follow him after to the pavilion after he scored 59 off 30 balls. His innings included five monstrous sixes which were a treat to watch. None of the batsmen except Rille Rossouw (15 runs) at least got to the double figures and ultimately, the Cape Town Blitz won the match by a massive 49 runs.

Twitterati was left disappointed with ABD’s team on the losing side. They empathised for him and felt bad that his heroics went in vain. Mohammad Nawaz received a lot of applause from the fans for his all-round show.

Here is how Twitterati reacted:

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