I Love U ,IPL, I Love U.

I dont care what the purists say.For me sports is synonymous with excitement and joy and last night was just that-plain unadulterated entertainment. IPL is the new breed of cricket. An amalgamation of not so strange bedfellows-cricket and glamour.The past few months have been nothing short of a whirlwind romance for the two.Money was being thrown around like it was nobody’s business and much hype was created.Ads promoting team loyalities left the Indian public torn ,confused but still very much excited and curious.

Last night’s opening ceremony was surely the icing on the cake.Spectacular,magical and larger-than -life are just a few words to describe the atmosphere at the Chinnaswamy stadiumin Bangalore.A packed stadium waited with baited breath for the start of the ceremony.Suddenly,out of the pitch black, spring night,sprung trapeze artists,acrobats,stilted beauties,fairies in bubbles and the crowd erupted. Dazzling fireworks followed and the stands filled with Shankar-ehsan-loy’s melodious music.This was Cricket Rock!As the team captains were introduced the crowd grew wild with excitement and one man they called “the boss” tendulkar,prompted a deafening cheer that probably could be heard all the way in Chennai.I enjoyed it just as much watching it from home.Although the dancing girls didnt get my approval and made the event border on sleazy,IPL still gets my vote.

The cricket was unpredictable.The wall crumbled and so did his team much to my dismay and it was really a pathetic performance.However,not having developed much of a loyalty yet towards any team the crowd loved McCullum’s innings!McCullum crossed 50 in 32 balls, 100 in 53 and 150 in 70 balls.McCullum’s score is the highest in T20 cricket, beating the previous mark by 17 runs. The short-statured but strong-armed wicketkeeper from New Zealand hit 14 sixes and 10 fours.Each 6 took the crowd to a new high.Shahrukh’s songs belted out each time his team hit a 4 or a 6.It was pure fun.Not since an India-Pakistan match had the Indian public witnessed such levels of passion and frenzy.The brief score of yesterdays’ match is as follows:

Kolkata Knight Riders:222/3 in 20 overs

B.McCullum 158 n.o.;Ponting 20

Bangalore Royal Challengers :82 all out in 15.1 overs

P.Kumar 18 n.o.;A.Dinda 2 for 9;A.Agarkar 3 for 25

Kolkata Knight Riders won by 140 runs.

This game is ruthless.It can bring down the mighty and create stars out of unknowns;and this is its major selling point!Oh well,Im off. Yuvraj’s Kings XI Punjab will face Dhoni’s Chennai SuperKings in a few and I need to get my popcorn ready.The update of that match will be up here pretty soon.