It’s official. The first IPL tournament is a hit and hosannas have been pouring in on how cricket will never be the same again. Mihir Bose in BBC
Twenty20 cricket may teach us very little on the field of play but, off it, the Indians have built a model which will undoubtedly change world cricket.
I must confess that a week ago when I arrived in India I was sceptical as to what the Indian Premier League meant - but its impact soon became clear.
The Indians have now got a tournament that, even before the semi-finals, had been watched by more than 100 million on television, while the final alone was expected to attract some 30 million.
Crowds have packed out stadiums and the final saw 55,000 fill a new stadium two hours’ drive from Mumbai.
And in IHT, Huw Richards on frugal Rajasthan’s big win
The Rajasthan Royals, which had already proved itself the best team over the length of the qualifying tournament, showed that it was also the best in the clutch as it took the inaugural Indian Premier League title in Mumbai.
It beat the Chennai Super Kings in a desperately tense final on Sunday, reaching its target of 164 to win from the final ball of its innings of 20 six-ball overs when Sohail Tanvir struck the single run it needed.
As in last year’s first-ever World Cup in the Twenty20 format - when India’s victory created the excitement that led to the creation of, first, the rebel India Cricket League, and then the officially backed the IPL - the organizers were treated to a final that was everything they could have asked for. Chennai battled to its limit. Rajasthan won because Tanvir and its captain, Shane Warne, both chiefly bowlers, kept their nerve when asked to score the final 21 runs from 14 balls.
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