‘Pathetic Performance’ - Twitter reacts to Abu Dhabi Knight Riders’ six-wicket defeat to Gulf Giants in ILT20

The third match of the ongoing ILT20 turned out to be another one-sided contest where Gulf Giants absolutely dominated Abu Dhabi Knight Riders to win their first match of the competition. The Sunil Narine-led side on the other hand suffered their second defeat in a row.

Coming to the match, it was another terrible batting performance from Knight Riders as they managed to score only 114 runs in 20 overs. Irish opener Paul Stirling scored 20 off 20 deliveries while Andre Russell smashed 26 off 12 deliveries to help their team cross the 100-run mark.

Seven of their batters failed to reach the double figures and that has to be one of the major concerns for Knight Riders going ahead.

Sanchit Sharma and Chris Jordan were phenomenal with the ball as the duo scalped six wickets. The Knight batters were completely bamboozled in the first innings and now need their senior players to step up and take control in the upcoming games.

Gulf Giants on the other hand never looked under pressure as they chased the total down with absolute ease. Skipper James Vince gave the team a perfect start as the 31-year-old scored 65 off 44 deliveries. Meanwhile, sending youngster Rehan Ahmed to open the innings was a strange decision by the team management and the strategy didn’t work as well.

For Knights, Sunil Narine picked up two wickets after giving away just 22 runs while Ravi Rampaul and Akeal Hosein picked one each. The 29-year-old Hosein was pretty expensive but the skipper backed him throughout the game. Interestingly, Andre Russell didn’t bowl a single over in the match.

Netizens were very critical of the performance displayed by Knight Riders and criticised them for backing only West Indian cricketers. The team needs to improve significantly now in order to have a chance of winning the title.

This is how Twitter reacted -

@ADKRiders Pathetic Performance.. Zimbabwe performs better than these team. Still trying to figure it out is it International League or Carribbean league where this includes maximum West Indies players rather than other countries. @VenkyMysore Kindly resign or perform.#ILT20

— Ashraf Khan (@TheValentin1) January 15, 2023

This @ILT20Official look like a tri series between England,West Indies and Afghanistan #ILT20 @vikrantgupta73 @rawatrahul9 @manoj_dimri @SushantNMehta #CricketTwitter

— Muhammad Jamal Vali🇮🇳 (@ImJamalVali) January 15, 2023

Sanchit Sharma is running through ADKR. Nice to see that. #ILT20

— Nikhil 🏏 (@CricCrazyNIKS) January 15, 2023

Sri Lanka getting done with this dead rubber quick so they can get to their respective #SA20League and #ILT20 teams ✨#INDvSL pic.twitter.com/EO4IsdZxoR

— Fantasy Cricket Pro 🏏 (Viren Hemrajani) (@FantasycricPro) January 15, 2023

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