Night of the Knights
- Brendon butchers Mallya’s men SANKARSHAN THAKUR
Team Shah Rukh Khan cheers his Kolkata Knight Riders, supported by the ABP Group, in Bangalore on Friday. “It’s one of the happiest days of my life,” Shah Rukh told The Telegraph after the team’s victory. Picture by Santosh Ghosh Bangalore, April 18: For a few thundered moments, it seemed the Chinnaswamy bowl was set for a violent takeoff into the cosmos; no cricket tonight, folks, you’re being taken for a ride of the constellations.
The lights had been thrown off, and the high rim of the stadium had suddenly erupted with spectacular pyrotechnics. You were in the dark belly of a saucer about to spin off into the skies.
Fortunately, there was too much of an overload on the saucer, the stands brimming over and queues still snaking at the gates late into the evening. And the thing about fireworks is that sooner than later there is a burnout. We stayed on ground. Brendon McCullum did all the flying and Knight Riders won by 140 runs.
Vijay Mallya obviously hadn’t reckoned with the firepower of the Riders’ opener; he may well have saved the millions he spent on the crackers for this evening. McCullum flamed all evening. A searing six off the last ball of the innings for a record-breaking T20 score and, if you asked him, he’d still have said he didn’t know what burnout meant.
No matter that the more fancied Riders were flailing and falling. Skipper Sourav scratched and holed out. Ricky Ponting didn’t last much longer. Here was the gladiator in the golden helmet, blazing his route to a hero’s welcome at the Eden on Sunday night. Get ready to embrace him Calcutta. What’s it to be? Brenda? Or does Brengun sound more appropriate?
They played a Shah Rukh hit each time the ball went to the fence tonight. It was sent there too many times, the Knight Riders may already have done their boss a huge disfavour. You don’t want to listen to another Shah Rukh hit in a long, long time.
Not that he would mind. He was delirious in the stands the best part of the evening, clapping, gyrating, whistling, whirling. “Aaj ki raat, hona hai kya, pana hai kya….”
Shah Rukh may have been forgiven for thinking he already knew. Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, Jacques Kallis and Wasim Jaffer had perished within 15 minutes of the Royal Challengers’ response. Chinnaswamy’s resident DJ did have the Challengers’ music spooled for play but they wouldn’t give him an opportunity. Even during the Challengers’ innings, it was Shah Rukh belting away deafeningly on the PA system. “Main hoon Don, Main hoon Don, main hoon, main hoon, main hoon….”
Mallya, perhaps embarrassed by the early collapse of the Challengers, vanished awhile from his box and surfaced in the television studios, discussing not match prospects, but the future of the IPL. King Khan edged more to the front, dancing to his men. “Korbo. Lorbo. Jeetbo re, korbo, lorbo, jeetbo re….”
Very few would have understood that in the stands, and fewer would have perhaps appreciated the Riders’ victory chant. But then, even though the home team had dug itself into a pit early, surcharge rippled through the stands this balmy night. At the end, there would still be time to hit the pubs, to rejoice or to regret.
And, as one Challengers fan said: “We don’t really mind, although it would have been good for our team to win. This is still pure entertainment, cricket and much else, and it doesn’t take a whole day.”
In their more depressing moments, the home fans always had the option to turn to the ever-obliging cheer leaders. The Challengers were plunging to ignominious defeat, the Washington Redskins were swinging away on their strobe-lit decks; perhaps Mallya should fire them, after all, it’s just not cricket, their delight at the demise of their own team. Or perhaps they’ll get the benefit of the doubt. They don’t know this game, after all, they’re here purely for the spectacle of it.
They began it in grand style this evening, unfurling a fluid gothic masquerade under strobes and lasers, to set the IPL on its way. Surreal fairies on stilts and in bubbles that kept a full house enraptured through their two-hour performance. It ended in an electrifying play of laser beams, cut through by trapeze artists who flew down from the stands on slings and landed mid-park to unleash a crackling finale that would light up the skies over Bangalore.
And Brendan McCullum was still to come, such was the magic box that this evening was.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080419/jsp/frontpage/story_9158692.jsp
AuthorTopic: IPL 2008 - Match 1 : Bangalore Royal Chargers vs Kolkata Knight Riders (Read 6749 times)
