Happy birthday IPL: 2008 to 2018
McCullum in 2008
The first match was played between Bangalore and Kolkata
On this day in 2008, first match of Indian Premier League (IPL) was played between Bangalore and Kolkata.
Cricket legend Rahul Dravid won the toss and had put the Kolkata in to bat. But, what followed for the next hour or so mesmerized the spectators.
The start was slow by today’s standards. Those were still early days for T20 cricket, so we were not surprised when McCullum had not opened his account after six deliveries.
In fact, the first over in the history of IPL delivered by Praveen Kumar produced just one run via a leg-bye.
But things began to change very soon. McCullum scored 18 runs off the second over bowled by Zaheer Khan, who was immediately taken off the attack.
The tournament's beginning, which is often referred to as ‘India ka Tyohaar’ (festival of India) is remembered for Brendon McCullum’s unforgettable 158 runs during the first-ever game.
He raced off to a century in only 52 balls and was in no mood to end the carnage. He remained unbeaten on 158 runs off just 73 balls and took the Kolkata's total to 222 runs in the allotted 20 overs.
In the process, he hit 13 sixes and 10 boundaries. It was the highest individual score in the IPL till 2013 when Chris Gayle scored 175 runs for Bangalore against Pune in Bengaluru.
And as the eleventh edition of the tournament is underway, one thing is sure that the league has definitely brought a paradigm shift in the way cricket is played and viewed.
Who would have thought that Andrew Symonds and Harbhajan Singh would one day share the same dressing room? The IPL made it a reality and international stars who would otherwise be at each other's necks while representing their respective countries, help out each other in this grand league.
But, in a match which went down to the last ball, Rajasthan defeated Chennai in the final to win the title with Yusuf Pathan named the player of the match and Shane Watson adjudged the player of the tournament.
Sohail Tanvir won the purple cap for being the top wicket-taking bowler while Shaun Marsh won the orange cap for leading run-scorer in the tournament.
Shreevats Goswami was awarded the best under-19 player award and the special award for Fair Play was won by the Chennai.
In the 11th edition, the star of first IPL McCullum is playing for Bangalore. In three matches, the star player scored 43 runs in first match, zero in second and 4 in the third match.