Twitter Reactions: Marcus Stoinis and Mayank Agarwal script a breathless battle

Wow!! The Indian Premier League (IPL) is up and running and how! The second match of the season went down to the super over and was a nail-biting thriller. Both the teams, Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) and Delhi Capitals (DC), bottled up the dominating position in the game and eventually, the latter side prevailed in the thriller thanks to Kagiso Rabada who bowled a scinitillating super over and picked up two wickets in three balls itself. Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant then got the team over the line comfortably without much fuss.

It wasn’t a game for the top-order batsmen. But one man, the KXIP opener Mayank Agarwal played a waiting game when all his teammates were committing harakiri. And he single-handedly took his team to the brink of the victory only to not get over the line. DC, after letting off the game go out of their hands, somehow managed to defend one run off the last three deliveries.

Mayank Agarwal first holed out to the deep when a run was needed off the last two balls while Chris Jordan hit a low full toss straight to Kagiso Rabada. The match went into the super over when both the teams were the favourites to win the match at one stage with the Capitals taking the two points in the end.

Marcus Stoinis propels DC to 157

Earlier in the day, after opting to bowl first, KXIP bowlers, especially Mohammed Shami spit venom in his opening spell picking three wickets. At 13/3 after four overs, things didn’t look good for the Capitals. But their skipper Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant stitched 73 runs together to bring the innings back on track. However, KXIP pulled things back again picking three more wickets in 10 runs leaving the opposition reeling at 96/6 with four overs to go.

This is where Marcus Stoinis came to the fore for the Capitals as he smashed the leather brutally. He smashed 53 off just 21 balls with seven fours and three sixes. DC smacked 30 runs off the last over that Chris Jordan bowled and this is where they believed they have a chance in the game. DC managed to reach 157 runs for the loss of eight wickets after 20 overs despite Sheldon Cottrell (2/24) and Shami (3/15) bowling extremely well upfront.

A thriller of a chase

Chasing 158, the KXIP got off to an extremely poor start much like their opponents. They lost four wickets in the space of 12 balls to get reduced to 35/4 from 30/0. Ravi Ashwin picked two wickets in an over in the sixth over to leave them reeling and before getting injured. Sarfaraz Khan also holed out in the deep in quest of getting quick runs.  At 55/5 after 10 overs, the Capitals were favourites.

But Mayank Agarwal had other ideas. He stitched 46 runs first with Krishnappa Gowtham and then nicely controlled the innings in the death overs. He played proper cricketing shots to keep the opposition at bay and was also dropped once by none other than Shreyas Iyer. When Agarwal brought it down to one run off three balls, nobody thought it will go down to super over.

In the end, Stoinis’ knock turned out to be a crucial one and it was him who picked two wickets in the final over to take it to the super over which helped the DC register a win. Moreover, his knock with the bat which literally gave a chance to DC to compete in the game.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: