Cricket: Top 10 tweets of 2018

By Krishnan M
Modified Jan 01, 2019 09:22 IST
Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli

The year 2018 was an exhibition for cricket fans all around the world. It had everything one could ask for. From some of the most destructive batting performances to some of the most hostile bowling spells, from the gritty resilience shown by the batsmen to the most disciplined bowling performances.

The year also had its share of controversy with sandpaper gate being one of the major highlights. It brought in the limelight, some of the very talented young players through U-19 World Cup but also witnessed some of the greats bidding adieu to the game.

To everything that happened in the last twelve months, there is no way a social media platform like Twitter may not reflect the timeline of events. Twitterati had their fair share of laugh, criticism, and opinions about the entire cricket that happened and the events surrounding it. Everyone from experts of the game to the present and former cricketers shared their views.

So let us scroll down and have a look at the top ten tweets of 2018. Some that consist of funny banter and others that reflect a major happening:

1) Virender Sehwag's Tweet about Rahul Dravid and his U-19 boys:

The U-19 World Cup in 2018 was the one to remember for India. A young group of boys, coached by none other than Rahul Dravid, Indian team dominated the whole tournament. The young guns in Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill were the stars of the tournament.

As much as everyone appreciated the team’s performance, there was also much praise surrounding the team’s coach, Rahul Dravid. Earlier, Dravid rejected the role of Indian team coach and decided to be with the junior team. The results were there for everyone to see. Dravid’s influence was seen on the boys as all of them displayed great discipline and composure under pressure.

Being the player of Rahul Dravid stature it is expected that he might gain more attention than a normal coach and player’s performance might get overshadowed but Dravid ensured this not to happen and always stayed behind the scenes.

Sehwag's tweet summed it up nicely.

2) The Sandpaper Gate saga: How Sachin Tendulkar summed it up

It was the third Test between Australia and South Africa. What was on display was a highly competitive series until Australia decided to use Sandpaper to get some reverse swing going on the ball. The chief architects of this awful act saw Steve Smith, David Warner, and Cameron Bancroft, in the mix of things.

Being caught live on television, the Aussies had to accept their ill-doing. Cricket Austalia imposed hard punishments on all three players. Skipper Smith and vice-captain David Warner were banned for 12 months while young Bancroft had to relinquish cricket for the next nine months. Even coach, Darren Lehmann resigned off his duties.

All this had a very serious impact on Australian cricket, as the team is still going through one of the worst phases in their cricketing history.

Sachin Tendulkar summed it up nicely saying “Winning is important but the way you win is more important”.

3) Harsha Bhogle on Yuvraj Singh and life

Yuvraj Singh, India’s World Cup hero, and one of India’s favourite witnessed a huge downfall in his career owing to the deadliest of diseases, cancer. Although Yuvi fought hard to return to the cricket field but not with his lost Midas touch that reflected his pure timing on the ball.

In the last edition of IPL, Yuvraj Singh played a few matches for Kings XI Punjab. In one of those matches, he was sent lower down the order with only a few overs left. The stage was all set for Yuvi to show everyone what he is capable off but once again he failed.

The word maestro, none other than Harsha Bhogle, stated it very nicely and aptly pointed out a life lesson hidden for all of us. The tweet won hearts of many people and Bhogle once again proved that cricket can be viewed from the perspective of life as well.

It was one of the best tweets of 2018.

4) The return of Chennai Super Kings: Mohammad Kaif's tweet

It was one of the most emotional moments for CSK supporters in Chennai and all around the world. Chennai Super Kings after being banned for 2 years returned back to where they belonged and won IPL-2018 in an emphatic fashion.

It all started with many people mocking CSK over the players they picked up in the auction as most of them were above the age of 30 years. What they forgot was that with age comes experience which is as necessary as anything in T20s.

Mohammad Kaif aptly described everything that CSK achieved in this IPL and also highlighted the importance of experience. The tournament was the one to remember for everyone. It marked the return of MS Dhoni as a captain, the emergence of Rayadu as a batsman and Lungi Ngidi as a bowler. The story of CSK was like a pleasing fairy tale.

5) Virat Kohli’s tweet (Reply to trolls):

It was during the launch of his mobile app when Virat Kohli was responding to questions from his fans. One of them said that Indian batsmen are overrated and English and Australian batsmen are far better than them.

In what seemed like a heat of the moment reply, Kohli told the person to leave the country and go and live somewhere else. The video of Virat’s reply went viral and everyone seemed to talk about it. People started trolling the Indian captain and it all went out of sorts.

Replying to his trolls, Virat tweeted and mentioned what he found inappropriate in the person’s comment. He said he always supports freedom of speech and wished everyone on the festive season.

Being Virat Kohli is never easy; everything one does comes under the scanner. What was impressive was the maturity with which Virat handled everything.

6) Rohit Sharma and Yuvraj Singh: A friendly exchange of words

It was 11th December when wishes were pouring in from all around the world for Yuvraj Singh. It was Yuvraj’s 37th birthday.

Rohit Sharma, currently one of the best batsmen in the world in limited overs format and also a very good friend of Yuvraj Singh wished him on twitter saying “Happy Birthday to the eternal superstar” and attached a photo where Yuvraj was holding his neck.

Yuvraj Singh, being as cheeky as he always is, replied in one of the most hilarious ways. Taking in context Rohit’s dismissal in the first test where he played a rash shot and was dismissed for 37 runs, Yuvraj Singh tweeted “And next time you get out on 37, I will hold your neck like that”.

These two have engrossed in some friendly banter and teasing on Twitter previously also. The banter between two such high profile cricketers is a delight for fans to read.

7) Gautam Gambhir’s retirement tweet

“The most difficult decisions are often taken with the heaviest of hearts. And with one heavy heart, I’ve decided to make an announcement that I’ve dreaded all my life.”

These were the words of India’s World Cup winning hero, Gautam Gambhir.

A decision that left every Indian cricket fan emotional, the retirement of Gautam Gambhir. Alongside this, Gauti posted a very emotional video in which he explained the reason for his retirement and thanked everyone for supporting him.

Somehow we all felt that Gambhir deserved more from Indian cricket, a hero like him should have had a proper farewell but it was not to be. Still in his last innings for Delhi in Ranji trophy, he smashed a magnificent hundred and left the field with head held high.

Careers like these are never forgotten. Gautam Gambhir will always be remembered for his crucial performances for team India whether it was that test innings in Napier or the finals of 2007 and 2011 World Cups.

8) Harsha Bhogle comparing Rahul Dravid and Cheteshwar Pujara

Mr Bhogle tweeted this after India won the first match of the series down under owing to Pujara’s brilliance. Cheteshwar Pujara scored a gritty century for his team in the first innings and stayed like a wall when everyone around him failed.

Pujara’s innings reminded everyone of Rahul Dravid who in his playing days single-handedly used to carry India’s batting forward, especially in overseas conditions.

It was exactly 15 years ago in Adelaide when Rahul Dravid scored a magnificent double ton in the first innings and a 70 not out in the second innings to take India to a famous victory.

Harsha Bhogle was spot on with his judgment when he mentioned Cheteshwar Pujara as a true successor to Rahul Dravid. Pujara also replied to Harsha’s tweet thanking him for such kind words. It was heartwarming to see Pujara score runs outside the subcontinent.

9) Shaun Pollock congratulating Dale Steyn after Steyn broke his record

It was one of the most heartwarming tweets of 2018. Shaun Pollock congratulated Dale Steyn on breaking his record and becoming the leading wicket-taker for South Africa with 424 wickets in Test cricket.

Dale Steyn, one of the finest pacers cricketing world has ever seen, was struggling with injuries that kept him out of cricket for months. There were doubts regarding him making a comeback to the South African side. But being the sort of champion Dale Steyn has always been, he trained hard and came back to cricket and took that long-awaited wicket against Pakistan in the first test.

Shaun Pollock showed real champion stuff and was full praise for his successor. He said that he enjoyed many of Steyn’s wickets and labelled him as the best fast bowler the country has ever produced.

We all hope to see more of Dale Steyn in the upcoming year.

10) Mumbai Indians tweet trolling Tim Paine

Here’s the tweet to wrap up the year based on an incident in the recently concluded Test match between India and Australia. This was probably the funniest of them all. The whole thing started in the 3rd Test of the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy. Tim Paine, the Australian captain while trying to get under the skin of Rohit Sharma said that if Rohit hits a six, then he will probably support Mumbai Indians.

After the innings was over, Rohit said in a statement that if Tim Paine scores a century he might ask his boss at MI to buy Tim Paine.

The twitter handle of Mumbai Indians, which we know is very active, noted this thing. Once Paine got out in the second innings they showed no delay in tweeting about it. They tweeted a photo of Tim Paine with “Mission Failed” written on it.

It was a hilarious and fitting reply to the banter Tim Paine had been doing in the entire series.

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