It has been a theme over the past few years that whenever an ex-Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) player or the one which the franchise had kept on the bench performs well, the franchise gets trolled mercilessly on social media, mostly by then own fans!
The same thing happened on Saturday when New Zealand opener Finn Allen smashed 42 runs off 16 balls, recording a belligerent strike rate of 262, in the T20 World Cup Super 12 opener against Australia in Sydney.
New Zealand dropped veteran Martin Guptill and instead picked the in-form and more aggressive Finn Allen. It was a big call, especially given Guptill’s immense experience, but the 23-year-old youngster stood up and lit up the SCG from the outset of his innings.
On the second ball of the first over, by the ever-threatening Mitchell Starc, Allen thumped Starc down the ground for a four. To further clear his intentions, he clobbered the speedster for a six on the next ball over long-on and concluded the over with another boundary.
Allen faced two balls from Hazlewood and hit one for four. He treated Pat Cummins with disdain, clattering the number 1 ranked Test bowler for 4, 4, 0, 6, 2. If these three stalwarts were met with such intent and boundaries, what was medium-pacer Marcus Stoinis to do: nothing: walloped for six.
New Zealand, who were beaten by Australia in last year’s T20 World Cup final in Dubai, were high-flying in Sydney at 56/0 after only 4 overs. Allen hitting 42 of those from only 15 balls. It needed a proper pin-point yorker from Josh Hazlewood to end Allen’s innings, who had advanced down to open the off-side
Fans troll RCB for benching Finn Allen for the entire IPL 2022 season:
This super-intentful and boundary-laden knock from Finn Allen gave an opportunity to troll the Mike Hesson-led RCB team as the franchise had kept Allen on the bench throughout the IPL 2022 season after buying him for 80 lakh in the auction.
Here are some of the tweets trolling RCB:
RCB fans, start screaming ee sala cup namde now only. Fin Allen is with us. #AUSvNZ
— Danish Sait (@DanishSait) October 22, 2022
And again, RCB benched Finn Allen for 16 matches in the season while their batters had the worst powerplay strike-rate for the entire season#AUSvNZ #T20WorldCup
— Rohit Sankar (@imRohit_SN) October 22, 2022
Being benched by RCB is part of your success. Wear it like a badge. #FinnAllen
— Silly Point (@FarziCricketer) October 22, 2022
RCB had Finch Allen before. They benched him. https://t.co/WZKdwiU3aw
— Abhishek Mukherjee (@ovshake42) October 22, 2022
how many more years are we seeing this don Finn on rcb bench at chinnaswamy watching faf bat…. pic.twitter.com/or6OyVgYaB
— arfan (@Im__Arfan) October 22, 2022
RCB fans watching Finn Allen smash Australia while knowing that he will be on the bench in the IPL! #AUSvNZ pic.twitter.com/mKqt2BQ4hD
— 12th Khiladi (@12th_khiladi) October 22, 2022
Fin Allen RCB blooddd warra start to World Cup
We’re running cricket— Pranjal (@Pranjal_one8) October 22, 2022
Warra Knock and warra ball to get him
In the end it’s rcb winning 💪💪— Pranjal (@Pranjal_one8) October 22, 2022
Last 2 seasons Finn Allen benched in RCB
— சேந்தன் (@cric_jeev) October 22, 2022
Sometimes cricket feels like a horror comedy which RCB can only make possible. By the way, 42 runs off 16 balls (SR 262.50 / 5 fours & 3 sixes). Thanks to @FinnAllen32 for entertaining. What a great start ! 🚀#FinnAllen | #AUSvNZ | #IPL | #T20WorldCup | #CricketTwitter https://t.co/tEQYVyTb12
— Chandan (@apoliticalsane) October 22, 2022
The audacity with which people say RCB never got better players. 🤡#T20WorldCup #AUSvNZ
— Soumya Ranjan Dhar (@srdsom_) October 22, 2022
