Twitter reacts to ‘immortal’ KL Rahul escaping certain dismissal as New Zealand goof-up regulation run-out

They say a cat has nine lives, but I suspect KL Rahul may have more than 10 if not hundred. Between the first ball of the first T20 to now, at the time of writing this, there have at least been three or four occasions where KL Rahul should have headed back to the pavilion, yet incredibly, he’s somehow survived. Remember when he survived two run-outs in one over thanks to Hamish Bennett in the first match? Well, he was handed a favour once again by a Kiwi pacer today, albeit it being Blair Tickner. 

With both him and Iyer cruising and with the equation being 47 needed off 39 balls, the duo were looking to get a move on and put the match to bed. Iyer, in particular, was keen on wrapping up things quickly. So when Tickner bowled a half-tracker on the fourth ball of the 14th over, the 25-year-old made room for himself to swat it on to the off-side boundary, something he’d done a lot in the first T20. But all Iyer could manage was connect the ball with the toe of the bat, meaning it went straight to the bowler.

However, Rahul, in an assumption that the ball would fly past bowler, already had his skating shoes on and was halfway down the wicket. Miscommunication ensued between the two batsmen so when Tickner collected the ball, Rahul was stranded right in the middle of the wicket. The opener, at that point of time, had given up, and the stumps - all three - were there to be aimed and hit. It was almost as if Rahul said, “Go on, hit the stumps and send me back to the dressing room”. 

But in what was a scarcely believable miss, the bowler, Ticker, took all the time in the world, aimed at the stumps and eventually ended up missing it. And the miss allowed Rahul, who had given up any hopes of staying alive, the opportunity to scamper back to the crease and save his wicket. It was a comedy of errors and as has been the case since the very first ball in the first T20, the Kiwis just can’t seem to catch a break. 

Here's how people on Twitter reacted on the incident: