DEL vs RLY | Twitter laments as Sangwan curbs dancing Kohli to trigger mass stadium exodus

W‌hen Rahul Sharma's inswinger trapped Yash Dhull LBW on Friday morning in smoggy Delhi, an unusually large crowd at the Arun Jaitley Stadium went up in cheers despite being the home fans. On any other day, such behaviour would have been perplexing, but this occassion warranted such a reaction; afterall, Virat Kohli was walking out to bat for them after 13 years of globetrotting glory. Less than 15 minutes later, the same fans were either stunned to silent or hollering in anger as they made their way to the exit gates with their hearts broken and team worse off.

Kohli walked out to bat in the 24th over with his trademark swagger, amidst chants of his name echoing around the arena, and took five balls to get off the mark with a dab towards point. However, the veteran looked far from comfortable with the pacers generating significant seam and swing movement, several of which only just beat his edge enroute to the keeper. Yet, 13 balls into his knock, Kohli decided he had enough. The 36-year-old, anticipating another straight delivery on length from Himanshu Sangwan, shimmied down the track and laced the red cherry straight down the ground with uncharacteristic power and aggression. The shot reeked of intent, as did what Kohli did on the ensuing delivery. Expecting a similar ball from Sangwan, Kohli danced out of his crease again and in doing so lost the battle. This time, the length was shorter and the line slightly wider, allowing it to pitch a couple paces away from Kohli before ducking in ferociously off the deck to pierce the gap between bat and pad and send off stump flying.

As soon as the death rattle sounded, Kohli's shoulders immediately hunched as if like a reflection of the gloom around the stadium, and as he made his way to the pavillion so did the fans towards exit gates despite some having arrived as early as 5 AM just to watch the great man bat. Twitterati's grief was no different.

Gone case!

Fantastic

Superb

Manifestation

Come back king

Really?

As expected

Embarrassing

Bye!

No way