Twitter Reactions: Incredible bowling spells from Dale Steyn and Wahab Riaz wins it for the Blitz

Since his comeback, Dale Steyn has looked supremely fit and is bowling as well as he ever did.

Published - 02 Dec 2019, 10:55 IST | Updated - 02 Dec 2019, 10:55 IST

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The Cape Town Blitz are back in the competition with a highly impressive win against the Tshwane Spartans. This was surely one of the most anticipated battles at this stage of the tournament. Considering the recent form, the Spartans were deemed favourites. However, some incredible bowling from Dale Steyn and Wahab Riaz handed over the Tshwane side their first defeat of this season.

It wasn’t typically one of those high-scoring games and kept the audience interested until the penultimate over of the match. But prior to that, the Cape Town Blitz batted first and got to 157/5 in 20 overs. David Bendingham was the most impressive batsman for the home team and mustered 53 from 40 balls. While Janneman Malan scored 36 runs, Vernon Philander and Quinton de Kock made small yet handy contributions. Lungi Ngidi picked up two wickets with the ball.

Dale Steyn bowls one of the best spells of MSL 2019

At the halfway mark, it seemed as if the Tshwane Spartans would be able to chase this down comfortably. But Dale Steyn had other plans. With the new ball, he dismissed the dangerous Dean Elgar for 5 runs. He also got the wicket of Wiaan Mulder while Wahab Riaz dismissed Theunis de Bruyn from the other end. At 16/3, these two made things difficult for the Spartans. And furthermore, Liam Livingstone got the big wicket of Heinrich Klaasen in the 9th over.

The wicket-keeper batsman mustered 13 off 17 balls and the team’s score was reduced to 48/4 when he got out. AB de Villiers, though, offered some resistance. Quinton de Kock, once again in the tournament, used Dale Steyn as his main weapon and completed his four overs within the 15th over of the innings. This risk paid dividends as the fast bowler managed to dismiss his best friend ABD on the last ball of his fourth over, thus winning this battle.

However, Pite van Biljon kept at till the end and gave a scare to the Cape Town team. When he was going strong, Wahab Riaz shifted the momentum towards his team by bowling a great 19th over. The Pakistan bowler not only dismissed Biljon for 62 but only conceded four runs despite bowling a no-ball. In the end, Cape Town Blitz managed to win by 15 runs to stay alive in the tournament.

Here is how Twitterati reacted:

Dale Steyn Today 4-10-3 ( Got Rid oF Dean Elgar / Wian Mulder & AB Devilliers ) 💥
Forever Goat 🐐
Forever Legend❤
Forever Beast💜#MSL2019 #mzansisuperleague
— CricketLover (@ManiTweets14) December 1, 2019

De Villiers is held to such high standards that fans feel (& tbf rightly so) that he's not quite the player that he was about 2 years ago- for example the lack of control in the shots against Hardus. Retired AB is still probably better than 90% of the batsmen in #MSL2019 though!
— thecricketblog (@thecricblogger) November 29, 2019

Indian flavour in the #MSL2019. 😂🤣 pic.twitter.com/qGh3NrQNkN
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) November 30, 2019

Steyn gets AB and wins the battle. He ends with 3 wickets haul for just ten runs in a four-over spell and moves the leading wicket-taker of the season. #MSL2019
— Johns (@CricCrazyJohns) December 1, 2019

Still the moment of today's match for me. Steyn came towards AB de Villiers laughing and then he took the ball from AB's hands and hit the stumps and started appealing as if he had stumped him 😂❤️#MSL2019 pic.twitter.com/HnOS0bWzfw
— Yash (@YashdeVilliers) December 1, 2019

I don't need a girlfriend who gives me love. But Dale Steyn who gives me 4 quality overs. What a Bowler ❤️#MSL2019 #CTBvTS
— Yash (@YashdeVilliers) December 1, 2019

Dale Steyn definitely making the T20 World cup #MSL2019
— Nzimeni Toi (@Bigizzy1828) December 1, 2019

SteynGUN is awesome in #MSL2019 , consitant, firey , accurate.
Today's spell is back from Vintage Steyn.
— Amey Guthe🇮🇳 (@amey_guthe) December 1, 2019