Twitter Reactions: Raina, McCullum star as GL qualify for the playoffs

The Mumbai Indians took on the Gujarat Lions in a virtual quarter-final at the Green Park in Kanpur. Captain Suresh Raina won the toss as Gujarat elected to field first. While they played with an unchanged XI from their last game, MI brought in Hardik Pandya for the injured Ambati Rayudu.

Batting first, Mumbai began well but once Rohit Sharma got out, they were reduced to 45/3. From there on, youngster Nitish Rana played a fantastic knock of 70 from just 36 balls as he led MI’s batting. However once he got out, the following batsmen struggled to put runs on the board as they could only manage 19 runs in the last 3 overs.

The visitors posted 172/8 in their quota of 20 overs. Dwayne Bravo and Praveen Kumar were the pick of the bowlers for Gujarat as they got 2 wickets apiece. Dhawal Kulkarni and Dwayne Smith too got 2 wickets each but were expensive.

On the other hand, Aaron Finch got out early in the first over. But from there on it was the Raina-McCullum show. While Raina scored a stupendous 58 runs from 36 balls, Brendon McCullum also raced his way to a blistering 48 (27). In the end, Smith took GL home along with Ravindra Jadeja.

Gujarat Lions won the game by 6 wickets with 13 balls to spare. Smith who batted in the middle order today won the man of the match for his all round performance. With this win, the Gujarat qualified for the playoffs and will definitely have a place in the top 2. MI’s chances now depend on a couple of results tomorrow.

Twitter kept everyone entertained in the knockout game between GL and MI. Right from lauding Rana to trolling MI lower order batting, right from lauding Raina and McCullum to trolling MI bowling tactics, here are some of the Twitter reactions that took place during the course of the game:

https://twitter.com/criticalbhukkad/status/734066163265724417

https://twitter.com/holdingwilley/status/734060884218118153

https://twitter.com/holdingwilley/status/734042129970782208