Twitter Reactions: Raina, Smith help Gujarat Lions route KKR

Kolkata Knight Riders took on the Gujarat Lions in the first ever day-night game at the Green Park, Kanpur. Captain Suresh Raina won the toss and elected to field first. While KKR brought in Jason Holder for the injured Andre Russell, GL had Suresh Raina, Eklavya Dwivedi and Shabad Jakati coming in for them.

Batting first, KKR lost skipper Gautam Gambhir early, thanks to a brilliant direct hit by Jakati. Robin Uthappa got a good start but couldn’t convert it. Yusuf Pathan scored a-run-a-ball 36 but didn’t get enough support from the other end. Some late charge by Holder and Suryakumar Yadav took KKR to 124/8 in their quota of 20 overs.

For Gujarat, the pick of the bowlers was surprisingly and unexpectedly Dwayne Smith who registered his best bowling figures of 4/8. Gujarat were already a bowler (Praveen) short, and Smith was quite commendable.

On the other hand, Gujarat Lions lost Smith on the first ball followed by Brendon McCullum. However, Raina returning to the team scored a magnificent half century as GL cruised to victory. Aaron Finch looked good before a collision between him and Raina resulted in a run out.

In the end, Gujarat won the game quite comfortably by 6 wickets with more than 6 overs to spare. KKR bowlers failed to exert any pressure after the two early wickets. Smith was deservingly announced the man of the match for his splendid bowling performance on the night that helped them restrict the opposition to a scalable total.

Twitter kept everyone entertained with some splendid tweets throughout the KKR-GL game. Right from lauding Smith to trolling Gambhir, from lauding Raina to trolling Tim Cook. Here are some of the Twitter reactions that took place during the course of the game:

#GL becomes the second team to reach 16 points…don't recall an IPL when 16 wasn't enough to qualify. Well played. ??

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) May 19, 2016

Good win for #GL, the NRR still quite bad so might need the 9th win.

— Saurabh Malhotra (@MalhotraSaurabh) May 19, 2016

1st fifty in winning cause since 2015 IPL for Suresh Raina. #IPL #GLvKKR

— Sampath Bandarupalli (@SampathStats) May 19, 2016

Welcome back @ImRaina. Fine knock, fine win

— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) May 19, 2016

A match which gets over before 11am.. #GLvKKR

— Nikhil Mane ??? (@nikhiltait) May 19, 2016

Bigger plus than the Dwayne Smith spell for #GujaratLions is the form of @ImRaina

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) May 19, 2016

Raina's first IPL fifty as a father. Previous ones were all as a nephew.#GLvKKR

— Gaurav Sethi (@BoredCricket) May 19, 2016

https://twitter.com/holdingwilley/status/733346466312294400

Raina and Rohit Sharma are the only players to score 300+ in each of the 9 IPL seasons. #GLvKKR

— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) May 19, 2016

Last two days:

Kohli reached 4000 IPL runs..
Uthappa reached 5000 T20 runs..
Raina reached 4000 IPL runs..

— Broken Cricket (@BrokenCricket) May 19, 2016

Finch getting runout by Jadeja and now Raina. Conspiracy theory quick, Twitter.

— Nikhil ? (@CricCrazyNIKS) May 19, 2016

https://twitter.com/holdingwilley/status/733344548022308864

2G is yet to bowl Shakib, Chawla. If you go by Twitter, 2G does not trust them enough.

— Nikhil ? (@CricCrazyNIKS) May 19, 2016

West "Indian Premier League". https://t.co/UBtq2EYnwT

— Sonu (@_hafees) May 19, 2016

"I've never seen anything like this before!" says Tim Cook.Yeah You're right Yusuf Pathan Performs Only Once in every 2 year.

— Manish (@Slysterr) May 19, 2016

Dwayne Smith – 18 dot balls – the most bowled by a bowler in a match in #IPL 2016#GLvKKR

— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) May 19, 2016

Tim Cook now watching #GLvKKR , Only visit of The Kapil Sharma Show is left for finishing his Tour of India.

— Sunil- The Cricketer (@1sInto2s) May 19, 2016

Kulkarni Seriously? #69kph #GLvKKR pic.twitter.com/OSL9yABF66

— Sameer Allana (@HitmanCricket) May 19, 2016