For those who missed the Indian Premier League inaugural game — and the fun, here’s the over-by-over account of the Bangalore Royal Challengers v Kolkata Knight Riders match. Andy Bull in The Guardian, UK:
OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD It’s about to start!
And the news is that… Bangalore have won the toss and will bowl first.
So, ah, who plays for them again then? Bangalore are playing: Rahul Dravid (capt), Balachandra Akhil, Mark Boucher (wk), Wasim Jaffer, Sunil Joshi , Jacques Kallis, Zaheer Khan, Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar, Ashley Noffke, Cameron White.
While Kolkata have: Sourav Ganguly (capt), Ajit Agarkar, Debabrata Das, David Hussey, Murali Kartik, Brendon McCullum (wk), Mohammad Hafeez, Ricky Ponting, Wriddhiman Saha, Ishant Sharma, Laxmi Ratan Shukla.
My man to watch: Cameron White, of my dear beloved Somerset. He’s scored two of the three top scores in the history of Twenty20.
1st over: Kolkata 3-0 (Ganguly 0 McCullum 0) The crowd is huge, and the atmosphere is not unlike what you’d expect at a major cup final. Opening the bowling, dressed in red and yellow pyjamas, is Praveen Kumar. Ganguly pads the first ball away to square leg for a single leg bye. He’s wearing a marvellous gold helmet, like an extra from Gladiator. The second ball is a vicious off-cutter, jagging back in and beating McCullum’s attempted cut shot.
And some clips from the opening ceremony:
And previously in AW:
- If it works, Indian Premier League will transform cricket
- Click here for everything you wanted to know about the Indian Premier League
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what a match it was .??? awesome hitting by mc cullum…