Twitter Reactions: Suresh Raina's team holds edge over Dhoni's men in a clash of the CSK titans

The clash of two titans MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina who were the manifold in CSK took place as the Rising Pune Supergiants took on the Gujarat Lions at Rajkot. MS Dhoni won the toss as RPS elected to bat first. Gujarat brought in Shahbad Jakati, Pravind Tambe, and Akshdeep Nath. Pune fielded an unchanged from their first match.

For Pune Ajinkya Rahane got out after a good start but Faf du Plessis went on to play a spectacular inning of 69 runs from 43 balls while Kevin Pietersen supported him well with 37 from 30 balls. However once both of them got out, the Gujarat bowlers cashed in as the incoming batsmen were struggled to make runs. At the end, Dhoni’s exploits in the last over made sure that Pune had a total to defend.

Ravindra Jadeja was the pick of the bowlers for Gujarat taking 2 wickets for just 18 runs while Tambe had 2 for 33. Dwayne Bravo got one wicket but was slammed for 20 runs in the last over.

On the other hand, GL began the chase strongly. They scored 85 runs in the first 8 overs. Aaron Finch scored another half century off 36 balls while Brendon McCullum fell short by one run with a stunning 49 from 31 balls. In the end, Bravo provided the finishing touches for the Gujarat Lions as they won by 7 wickets with 2 overs to spare. Murugan Ashwin took 2 wickets as the Pune bowlers struggled to exert any kind of pressure on the Gujarat batsmen.

Twitter was entertained as the two new franchises took on each other with some exhilarating tweets. Right from trolling Pune bowlers to lauding the Gujarat openers, here are some of the Twitter reactions during the course of the game:

Another one of those days when MSD will have to say "we were 20-25 runs short."#GLvRPS #IPL9

— ?Tanmay? (@fast_hostile) April 14, 2016

Winning Run came in Dhoni's Hand.

It was a Wide ball. ?

#GLvRPS

— Godman Chikna (@Madan_Chikna) April 14, 2016

2013 – RP Singh's No-ball to Ravindra Jadeja finishes off the game.
2016 – RP Singh's Wide to Ravindra Jadeja finishes off the game.#IPL

— Sampath Bandarupalli (@SampathStats) April 14, 2016

time for garba version of champion #GLvRPS

— Gaurav Kalra (@gauravkalra75) April 14, 2016

Tonight's menu: Puneri Missal ?#GameMaariChhe #GLvRPS

— The Gujarat Lions (@TheGujaratLions) April 14, 2016

Dhoni stumps Raina.
Raina be like:- 'Khaaye hai lakho dhokhe, Ek Dhokha aur seh lenge' #RPSvGL #IPL2016

— Sameer Allana (@HitmanCricket) April 14, 2016

Is this "Gurudakshina" from Raina to Dhoni??#IPL2016 #RPSvGL

— TheGoanPatiala (@TheGoanPatiala) April 14, 2016

Does no homework, mistakes KP for Ishant, Wonders what chess player looks like, gives wrong info! @sanjaymanjrekar, pizza not delivered.

— Nikhil ? (@CricCrazyNIKS) April 14, 2016

breaking: ashwin completes quota #GLvRPS

— Gaurav Kalra (@gauravkalra75) April 14, 2016

Incredible moment for M.Ashwin. Thrashed in 1st over, gets Finch out in the 2nd. That's IPL- gives you the full gamut of emotions! #GLvsRPSG

— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) April 14, 2016

This IPL will decide Ishant Sharma's status in India's limited over scheme of things. #GLvRPS

— Sameer Allana (@HitmanCricket) April 14, 2016

Rajat Bhatia must be the only spinner in the world with such a long run up#RPSvGL #IPL2016

— TheGoanPatiala (@TheGoanPatiala) April 14, 2016

To throw RP Singh at Finch and Baz is downright insulting. No wonder they're pissed.#GLvRPS

— Gaurav Sethi (@BoredCricket) April 14, 2016

https://twitter.com/altcricket/status/720656347063300096

Luckily Dinda isn't playing.. nahi to match referee khud match rukwa ke Gujarat Lions ko winner bana deta. #RPSvGL #IPL

— ️Silly Point (@FarziCricketer) April 14, 2016

Today below players reached

Finch: 1000 IPL Runs
Rahane: 2000 IPL Runs
Dhoni: 3000 IPL Runs

— Broken Cricket (@BrokenCricket) April 14, 2016

* Dhoni from behind the wickets *
" thoda aage jaa raina "
Raina * comes forward *
Dhoni * does stumping? *
Raina- WTF! #GLvRPS

— Sunil- The Cricketer (@1sInto2s) April 14, 2016

https://twitter.com/holdingwilley/status/720636340505808896

RPSG's batting can chase any target.
RPSG's bowling can also chase any target. So they should bat second. #IPL2016

— Sameer Allana (@HitmanCricket) April 14, 2016

Random stat: @msdhoni's record while batting in the 20th over in the #IPL: 353 runs (Incl today's 20 runs) off 155 balls, S/R 227.74!

— Arun Gopalakrishnan (@statanalyst) April 14, 2016

What did both the skippers say after the match? – We need to look at our team composition: MS Dhoni