Twitter Reactions: Shreyas Gopal shines with a hat-trick as rain wins the battle at the Chinnaswamy

It was all crazy cricket at the Chinnaswamy stadium on Wednesday. First, the rain which led to a delayed start and then the five-over shootout between RCB and RR. The crowd which waited patiently for three and a half hours deserved it and they were treated with some amazing cricket. However, with only the last two overs in the chase, the rain returned much to the crowd’s disappointment and the match had to be called off.

Before the rain arrived, the Rajasthan Royals (RR) had opted to bowl first and they started well in the 63-run chase. Sanju Samson and Liam Livingstone opened the innings for the visitors and both of them started the fireworks. Though the three pacers, Kulwant Khejroliya, Umesh Yadav and Navdeep Saini pulled things back nicely to keep the team in the hunt. After the first three overs, the score was 40/0 with 23 runs needed from the last two overs.

Yuzvendra Chahal came and picked Samson to make things interesting. But there was a complete anti-climax as the heavens opened up and the players shook hands with a smile on their face. Both the teams shared a point and RCB have been finally knocked out of the tournament. The Royals too are almost out and they will need sheer luck now apart from a victory to go through.

Royals make merry of RCB line-up

Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers came out to open the innings for the home team and the RCB skipper smashed the first couple of balls out of the park. Varun Aaron was all over the place as he conceded 23 runs in the first over as many felt that RCB will post a huge total on the board for a five-over game. Shreyas Gopal came on to bowl in the second over and even he was welcomed with a six by Kohli.

12 runs were scored off the first three balls and then came the anti-climax. He outfoxed both Kohli and De Villiers off the successive deliveries and then took a sensational hat-trick thanks to Marcus Stoinis who played a shot straight into the hands of Steve Smith at mid-on. But with the score reading 35/3 after two overs, RCB still had a great chance to post more than 70 runs on the board.

However, Riyan Parag, Jaydev Unadkat and Oshane Thomas all bowled superbly to eke out four more wickets and RCB could only add 27 runs in the last three overs. They finished on 62 runs for the loss of seven wickets in five overs and Gopal was the star for the Royals.

Here’s how Twitter reacted:

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