Twitter Reactions: Tripathi's 80 rallies Rajasthan Royals to 164 after Umesh's triple dent

The royal derby kicked off in Jaipur with some serious stakes on line. The Rajasthan Royals hosted the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the last league game for both the sides in the competition. Coming in to the game, both the sides knew they had to win the match to keep their hopes of qualifying for the playoffs alive. A win in the game will not guarantee a playoffs berth but certainly give the winner a sniff.

The winner of the game will have to wait for the result of the Sunday’s game between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils. For now, the RCB and the RR camp have their task cut out – they need to win the match. At the half way stage, the hosts Rajasthan Royals would know that they have possibly not put enough runs on the board. At the same time, they will have hopes from the fact that the Royal Challengers Bangalore have a vulnerable batting lineup.

In the match, the Rajasthan Royals won the toss and opted to bat first. They were severely jolted by the double exclusion of Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes. They surprised everyone by letting Jofra Archer open the batting with Rahul Tripathi. Archer bagged his third duck of the season as Umesh Yadav struck early for RCB. Ajinkya Rahane and Rahul Tripathi then played very sensibly to get the Royals back on track.

Rahane largely struggled with his timing on the day. He scored 33 off 31 balls with 3 fours to his name before he became Umesh’s second scalp in the 14th over of the game. On the very next delivery, Sanju Samson bagged a golden duck to become the third wicket of Umesh Yadav. While wickets kept tumbling from one end, Rahul Tripathi held the fort from the other end.

He scored his fifty and it was a much needed anchoring knock for the Rajasthan camp. Towards the end, Heinrich Klaasen contributed with a quick 21-ball 32 runs with three fours and a six to his name. In the final over, K Gowtham smoked two sixes to see the Rajasthan Royals finish with 164/5 in their 20 overs. Rahul Tripathi remained unbeaten on 80 off 58 balls on the other end. Tripathi hit five fours and three sixes in the innings.

Here is how the cricket world reacted to the Rajasthan Royals innings:

RCB need to chase down the total in 15.5 overs to go past MI's NRR.
RR needs to win the game by 70 runs to go past KKR's NRR.#IPL2018 #RRvRCB

— Sampath Bandarupalli (@SampathStats) May 19, 2018

This isn't a bad score at all from #RR. Will be interesting to see if the track slows down a bit more. Will be a test for the great class in the #RCB line-up.

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) May 19, 2018

Rahul Tripathi scored his first fifty of the season #RRvRCB pic.twitter.com/DOBFJ0bQ44

— CricTracker (@Cricketracker) May 19, 2018

Shane Warne wasted Rahul Tripathi down the order for most of this IPL. If he’d jettisoned D’Arcy Short earlier and let Tripathi bat at his favourite position, @rajasthanroyals may have already been through #RRvRCB

— Hemant (@hemantbuch) May 19, 2018

This is a top knock from Rahul Tripathi, on this pitch. I'm still clueless about how the team management has played with his position.#RRvRCB

— Jaanvi ? (@ThatCricketBuff) May 19, 2018

Every run that Rahul Tripathi has scored today is a tight slap (hate to use this word) to the think tank of #RR who moved him down the order this #VIVOIPL after having a very good season last year as an opener.
Top knock today.#RRvRCB

— Abhishek Barthur (@imabhi27) May 19, 2018

So finally Rahul Tripathi comes good at opening. Wonder why this wasn't done from starting itself?

— Niharika Raina (@niharika_raina) May 19, 2018

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