Twitter Reactions: KKR thump dismal RCB by 9 wickets in Abu Dhabi

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have started their UAE leg of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 with a brilliant win over the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Well, it can be said that only one team arrived in Abu Dhabi for the game as RCB never looked settled after opting to bat first.

Their skipper Virat Kohli played a scorching cover drive to start with. But Prasidh Krishna trapped him in the front of the stumps to rock RCB early. Devdutt Padikkal and KS Bharat then batted well through the powerplay to take the team’s score to 41. But the former feathered one to the keeper off Lockie Ferguson and this was a telling blow.

RCB crumbled from here on to lose their nine wickets for just 52 runs. In the middle overs, no batsman could break the shackles and it took some brilliant bowling to do it. The best of all was a sensational yorker from Andre Russell to castle AB de Villiers for a golden duck. Varun Chakravarthy also spun a web around RCB batsmen and once he dismissed Glenn Maxwell, there was no looking back for KKR.

RCB were skittled for just 92 runs after 19 overs with Chakravarthy (3/13) and Russell ((3/9) picking three wickets each while Ferguson accounted for a couple as well.

Gill and surprising package Iyer shine in the chase for KKR

KKR were expected to walk the chase and their openers Shubman Gill and the surprise package Venkatesh Iyer batted superbly to gun down 93 without much sweat. It was Iyer who fearlessly took the attack early on to the bowlers and Gill soon joined in showing his flair. The latter played some gorgeously strokes and smacked a quick-fire 47 before getting out with only 11 runs required.

RCB’s bowlers, once they didn’t get early wickets, didn’t look threatening at all and fumbles from their fielders didn’t help either. The shoulders dropped soon and it was only Yuzvendra Chahal who had success dismissing Gill. It was the only consolation for RCB as Venkatesh Iyer slammed an unbeaten 41 off 27 balls to help KKR romp home in just 10 overs.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: