Twitter Reactions: Rangpur Riders' deadly top-order too hot to handle for the Khulna Titans

The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), during the 25h match of the season, witnessed two of the best T20 players batting together. AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle batted together for close to five overs as the duo added 43 runs for the second wicket. Interestingly, the former farmed more strike to himself during the stand and scored a quickfire 41 during his 25-ball stay at the crease.

Gayle, however, preferred to watch some of De Villiers’ classy batting from the other end. The Universe Boss played a game of patience and only concentrated on picking singles early on in his innings. Alex Hales, his opening partner, went ballistic in the powerplay to get the Riders off to a perfect start as the openers added 78 runs in 46 balls while chasing a daunting total of 182 runs.

Hales raced away to 55 off just 29 balls with eight fours and three sixes while AB de Villiers scored 41 off 25 cherries. Despite these cameos, the Riders were in a tough situation after 16 overs with 43 runs still to get. This is when Gayle’s experience came to the fore. He took the attack to the opposition to virtually end the competition and slammed a half-century before getting out with only 11 runs needing.

He scored 55 off 38 balls with a couple of fours and massive five sixes to his name as the Riders romped home with three balls to spare in the end.

Reza picks four but Titans march on

Earlier in the day, the Titans were invited to bat first by the opponents and they got off to a bad start. Both their openers were back in the hut with only 29 runs on the board. Brendan Taylor and Nazmul Hossain Shanto then rebuilt the innings with a 49-run stand after which the skipper Mahmudullah also made sure that the run-rate never dipped.

However, the real impetus to the innings was provided by David Wiese who smashed 35 runs off just 15 balls even as Farhad Reza brought his death bowling skills to the fore. He ended up with the figures of 4/32 as the Titans managed to post 181 runs for the loss of six wickets on what looked like a belter of a pitch and it seemed enough at the halfway mark.

But the Riders’ top three clicked together to undo all the hard work of the Titans and despite coming back late with the ball, they couldn’t stop Riders from gunning down the total.

Here’s how Twitter reacted during the blockbuster game:

What a day, First Virat Kohli got hat trick of awards at the #ICCAwards then later at the #BPL AB De Villiers performed superbly then Chris Gayle scored a brilliant 50.

— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) January 22, 2019

Heard the chants of AB AB on YouTube live broadcast.#Gossebumps.
G.O.A.T is back!
After a long time.@ABdeVilliers17 @ridersofhope @circleofcricket @BCBtigers #BPL2019

— Vinit Shah (@Vinitshah5884) January 22, 2019

This is bad news for BPL teams, along side @AlexHales1, @ABdeVilliers17 and @Rileerr… @henrygayle is started scoring big runs.

— Jubair (@Jubair150792) January 22, 2019

Cricket world eagerly waits for AB to bat and goes gaga whenever he plays. Retirement kyu lee @ABdeVilliers17 🤬🤬

— Sahil (@imsahil_11) January 22, 2019

Doesn't matter how many Runs he score. He made every single ball he play look like an adventure.
What a Player he is.@ABdeVilliers17 #BPL

— ‏‎سدھآنشو (@beingsudhanshu_) January 22, 2019

AB de Villiers in T20s –
Mat – 263
Inns – 245
Runs – 7006
AVG – 35.38
SR – 148.58
Best – 133*
100s – 3
50s – 47
Sixes – 319
First South African and overall 14th player to achieve 7000 T20 runs milestone@ABdeVilliers17

— JSK (@imjsk27) January 22, 2019

Only 90's kids are gonna remember AB de Villiers as a classy batsman. #BPL

— Devvrat Unadkat (@DevvratUnadkat) January 22, 2019

Just when I thought he was playing a good innings he ruined it 🙄

Can't you like Control? @ABdeVilliers17
Why do you want to hit everyball 😐 https://t.co/PWJMwHLR3W

— Abhishek Sarkar 🇬🇧🇮🇳 (@Iam_Abhi45) January 22, 2019

AB De Villiers Is Spraying Boundaries All Over The Grounds

— آفتاب عالم (@SRKian_Aaftab) January 22, 2019

Chris Gayle just hit his 900th SIX in Twenty20 cricket (355th innings). The next best is Kieron Pollard with 557 sixes. #BPLT20 #KTvRR

— Sampath Bandarupalli (@SampathStats) January 22, 2019

.@ABdeVilliers17 completes 7,000 runs in T20 cricket. #BPL2019 pic.twitter.com/yasgfDhTdm

— CricTracker (@Cricketracker) January 22, 2019

#ABDeVilliers 41(25) today 😍

These days reverse sweep costing too much for him 🙁 pic.twitter.com/W2WbkTyzcM

— Thala Ajith 🙂 (@Dinu_Akshiii) January 22, 2019

Do you see @OfficialCSA calling @ABdeVilliers17 back in international for World Cup?

— Manish 🇮🇳 (@IManishh55) January 22, 2019

Rangpur riders top 3 🔥🔥
Gayle
Hales
AB De villiers #BPL

— AkhilRebelli (@akhilrebelli) January 22, 2019

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