Twitter Reactions: Knight Riders’ batting exhibition turns into Visakhapatnam extravaganza

Kolkata Knight Riders took on Delhi Capitals in match 16 of the Indian Premier League 2024 at the ACA-VDCA stadium in Vishakhapatnam on Wednesday. KKR won the toss and opted to bat first. Sunil Narine and Phil Salt looked in sublime touch as they started dispatching the balls to the boundary regularly. The duo added a staggering 60 runs as the opening pair within fiver over before Salt perished attempting a lofted drive towards mid-off. 

The wicket came as a respite for David Warner as he had dropped at the early stage of the innings. But Narine was unleashing mayhem in the coastal city and DC bowlers tried every ammo in their arsenal. He was joined by Angkrish Raghuvanshi and the duo again set for a long sailing thwarting the bowlers out of the park. They amassed a whopping 104-run partnership for the second wicket as Narine departed after a thumping 85 off 39 deliveries at a strike rate of 217.95. 

Angkrish did not seem to be wet behind the ears in the sport as he took the likes of Axar Patel and Anrich Nortje to cleaners. The right-handed batter smashed five boundaries and three sixes before he holed out at third man Khaleel Ahmed off Nortje attempting a six off a short and wide ball. But his 27-ball 54 run inning had pushed KKR to a formidable position in the game.  

KKR’s power hitters join the party in Visakhapatnam

Then came the pair of Andre Russell and Shreyas Iyer as deadly as it gets for the opposition. Russell punished Nortje in the first over he was facing, smashing him for two boundaries. And Rasikh Salam, who was having a bad day due to Narine was stubbed by a boundary and a sixer. Mitchell Marsh bowled in his arc and was penalised as usual with sheer power. Iyer, however, fell prey to the short ball ploy yet again, this time by Khaleel. 

Rinku Singh joining Russell in the middle looked in his usual elements. Facing the 19th over he dispatched Nortje for three sixes and a boundary and fetched 25 runs off him. He was dismissed on the final delivery and Russel followed suit in the very delivery of the 20th over by Ishant Sharma scoring 41 off 19 balls. With Venkatesh Iyer on the crease, KKR managed 272 runs, and the all-time IPL record by SRH for highest total remained intact.

Here’s how ‘X’ users reacted to KKR’s onsalught againt DC: