IPL 2020: #ThankYouVirat trends on Twitter after RCB's loss to SRH

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) were at the receiving end of another heart-wrenching defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 6 wickets in the Eliminator of the ongoing 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2020) at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi. With this defeat, their fifth on a trot, they were knocked out of the T20 extravaganza and would have to wait for another year to lift the coveted T20 Trophy.

The Bangalore-outfit had a decent start in the tournament as they had ten points in their bag from five wins in seven games. They looked like a team to beat as RCB finally found a solution for their weak bowling line-up in the form of Washington Sundar and Chris Morris. While Sundar showed a great character with the new ball and stemmed the run-flow in the powerplay, Morris tackled the death overs, which has been achilles heel for the team for the past few seasons.

Mohammed Siraj also regained his form and bowled some brilliant spells in the second-half of the tournament. Yuzvendra Chahal and Navdeep Saini were at their usual best. However, this time it was the batting line-up that failed to impress. Though the debutant Devdutt Padikkal was a revelation for the team as he emerged as the highest run-getter for RCB, he didn’t find a good opening partner as both Aaron Finch and Josh Philippe were inconsistent.

Virat Kohli strongly criticised on Twitter

Meanwhile, the RCB skipper Virat Kohli smashed 450+ runs with his willow but wasn’t at his fluent best in the tournament as he didn’t produce any magical knocks except the one against Chennai Super Kings (CSK). AB de Villiers did his job but didn’t get enough support in the middle-overs as both Shivam Dube and Sundar had a disappointing season with the bat. While Dube managed 129 runs in 11 games, Sundar scored 111 runs in 15 matches.

As the batting line-up of Bangalore failed to live up to to the expectations, the team ended their journey in IPL 2020 after five continuous losses. RCB’s poor run in the second-half of the tournament left the fans and viewers disappointed as they strongly criticised the team especially the skipper Virat Kohli.

A few disheartened fans also started trending #ThankYouVirat to troll him while some of them also demanded for Kohli to step down from RCB captaincy for the next season. Even the former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir criticised the RCB skipper for not winning the trophy in eight seasons under his leadership.