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Social media has its own way of functioning things. Comprising of mostly fanatics, their reasoning or looking at things, purely in terms of sports here, is quite different from the way experts or veteran athletes put their perspective on matters. Amid the general discussions in the build-up to the match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad, a section of fans on social media, backed KKR solely to deny an Aussie captain lift another trophy on Indian soil. Notably, Pat Cummins, captain of Sunrisers, had led Australia to a stunning ODI World Cup trophy win against India in Ahmedabad last November. And KKR responded to the social media discussion after their IPL title win.
It was a lopsided game at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday where Sunrisers never managed to gain an upper hand since going two down in the second over of the match. They were folded for just 113 runs in 18.3 overs after opting to bat first, thus recording the lowest ever total in an IPL final. In reply, Venkatesh Iyer’s fiery unbeaten knock of 52 off 26 was enough to help KKR wrap up the chase in just 10.3 overs as the side lifted their third IPL title in history.
Following the win, KKR took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to post a video captioned: “No more silence.” It featured skipper Shreyas Iyer, Rahmadulla Gurbaz, and Ramandeep Singh with a finger-on-the-lips gesture, thus serving a stern reminder to Cummins of his World Cup comment.
“Nothing more satisfying than hearing a big crowd go silent,” Cummins had said as a cautionary statement before the biggest match of his career at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad last November. Cummins delivered precisely the same in the final against India, who were the outright favourites, as the crowd had gone completely silent following the dismissal of Virat Kohli by the captain.
“We’re in a huddle after the wicket of Kohli in the final & (Steve) Smith says, ‘Boys, listen to the crowd.’ And we just took a moment of pause, and it was as quiet as a library, 100,000-plus Indians there & it was so quiet. I’ll savour that moment for a long time,” he had later recalled in an interview with ‘The Age’.
Cummins, who was on a captaincy streak of winning the WTC title, Ashes and the ODI World Cup, was touted to become the third Aussie after David Warner (2016) and Adam Gilchrist (2009) to win an IPL trophy as a skipper. But a lacklustre show from the SRH batters saw the 2016 champions being silenced.
