M Chinnaswamy Stadium had been painted with Red and Yellow, the official color of Royal Challengers matched the jerseys of the team. Opening ceremony was scintillating with expert gymnasts from all across the world entertained the audience. Dazzling fireworks lit up the sky and smoke engulfed the skies. The introduction of the team captains followed by them signing the MCC's Spirit of Cricket was cheered by the enormous crowd. BCCI President, Mr. Sharad Pawar, rightly called it a ‘historic day’ for international and Indian cricket.
Kolkata Knight Riders won the match hands down after an unstoppable knock by Brendon McCullum
The match was however disappointing on the whole. The strong bowling attack forged by Zaheer Khan and Praveen Kumar failed to keep runs from accumulating that posed a great challenge to the Royal Challengers. Thought to be a well balanced team, BRC had very little experienced players, and the youngsters found it hard to hide the pressure on them.
Right from the beginning, the pitch was owned by KKR when McCullum banged the ball to the fence in the second over. From then on, there was no looking back for the team, occasionally when Saurav and Ponting fell. The numbers in the scoreboard spun for every ball and stopped at 222 at the end of the innings.
Mallya's Challengers knew their position well and must have given hopes right then. It showed, when the started their innings. The captain Rahul showed his boys, the way back to pavilion. Soon, wickets started falling frequently and the home team found them struggling to score a single. Praveen Kumar's relentless efforts to save the day went iSn vain and the whole team gave in after 15 overs.
The major problem suffered today and will be suffered by IPL is the restriction of only 4 international players to be played per match. Bangalore fell for a meagre total because of inexperienced lot, which could have been averted if there were lighter restrictions.
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