Shubman Gill and sister face abuse, death threats after GT opener's century knocked RCB out of IPL 2023

Shubman Gill (Source: Twitter)

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) had their fate in their own hands to make the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 playoffs, but an eight-wicket loss to Gujarat Titans (GT) dashed their hopes. Virat Kohli led his team to a respectable total with a sensible hundred, but he was overwhelmed by GT opener Shubman Gill, who slammed his second IPL ton. Hours after the elimination of RCB, some of the dejected supporters went on to abuse and threaten Gill and his sister on social media.

In a must-win game for RCB, Kohli and skipper Faf du Plessis provided a storng powerplay, but when the latter was out in the eighth over, the game shifted in GT's favour. The hosts lost wickets in quick succession, but Kohli took all responsibility and went on to smash his record seventh IPL ton, pushing his team to a score of 197. Any score below 200 is risky at Chinnaswamy, especially against a team like GT, which has a strong record while chasing.

Gill's magnificent century helps GT eliminate RCB

The defending champions lost the early wicket of Wriddhiman Saha but Gill and Vijay Shankar put on a massive 123-run partnership that almost sealed the game for the visitors. RCB made a breakthrough by dismissing Shankar in the 15th over and added a couple more wickets, but Gill stayed undefeated till the end and ended the game in style with a six and a century in 52 balls.

RCB were on the brink of the playoffs, but 23-year-old Gill's match-winning knock favored Mumbai Indians (MI) to qualify. Some fans of the Bangalore-based franchise lost their cool and flooded social media with abuse and death threats against the youngster and her sister.

An RCB fan identified 'VamosVirat' posted a picture on Twitter of a burnt car with a caption, "should have been Gill's car man".

Another Twitter user (@gayle_vishnu) wished for the death of Shubman Gill.

Another user wished physical harm on Gill and labelled his sister Shahneel Gill as a ‘transgender’.

Some of the 'fans' took to Instagram and flooded with hate comments under Shahneel's post. One user prayed for her brother's death, while another dubbed her as a 'prostitute' and called for her to be sold online for ₹9.