Old is still gold in IPL’s opening night
Kolkata's IPL opening ceremony featured star performances, with Shah Rukh Khan hosting, and thrilling cricket from Ajinkya Rahane and Virat Kohli.
Kolkata: Orange alert, said the weather folks. Purple rain it was, Ajinkya Ranahe creating the perfect storm. Before that, the Eden was transformed into a ministry of sound.
The IPL opening ceremony in Kolkata has had Pitbull’s staccato energising Salt Lake stadium so much that people were bouncing in the seats and aisles. Twelve years later, it was Karan Aujla, the rapper from Canada, who was getting Eden into the groove. If it was Deepika Padukone and Katrina Kaif asking what her name was before giving it away then, it was Disha Patani’s hips that didn’t lie at Eden on Saturday. Before Patani and Aujla, there was a medley from Shreya Ghosal that was a bit like the innings from Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), it promised much but didn’t really take off.
But then and now, Shah Rukh Khan was the thread common to the opening show. The arclight on him, Khan started the ceremony, introduced the performers and then got Virat Kohli and Rinku Singh to share the stage with him.
Generation Bold and Generation Gold, he said, referring to the batter from Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and the man who grew with IPL and then some but after 17 years is still waiting for his first title. One player who has stayed true to his franchise through 18 years, Kohli was presented with a memento for just that. Not many can get Kohli to blush but Khan did when he said he was fortunate to be on stage with a legend like him.
“The king of 22 yards and the winner of a billion hearts,” is how Khan introduced Kohli on Saturday evening. In reel and real life, Khan has produced one-liners way better but given that his popularity transcends teams, Eden still warmed up to it like it was one of his famous lines. The chant of “Kohli, Kohli” would break through all evening but at that point, it coursed through the cricket cathedral.
It even prompted one fan to do a Jimmy Jump: break through the security cordon and greet Kohli at the crease. His generation, Kohli said, was still ready to make an impact. Before Kolhi walked his talk, Rahane took his message to heart. Quinton de Kock had gone early bringing the KKR skipper to the crease and it was in the innings’ fourth over that Rahane, 36 the same age as Kohli, took off. Rasik Salam’s first over saw him come out swinging and so high octane was his knock that by the eighth over, Sunil Narine was looking to rotate the strike.
A pick-up off Yash Dayal encapsulated the nonchalance with which Rahane dispatched Royal Challengers Bangalore bowlers. The man whose strike rate in IPL was in the 120s before this, got to 51 off 25 deliveries. With a six over square-leg off Suyash Sharma. Rahane and Narine’s 103-run stand put KKR on course for a big score before RCB put the brakes on. From 107/1 after 9.5 over, they ended on 174/8.
Crucial to that was Krunal Pandya. At 33, Pandya is more generation old than bold and by getting Rahane and Venkatesh Iyer and preventing Singh from taking off, he knocked KKR off their perch. The left-arm spinner usually lives in younger brother’s Hardik’s shadow but in the lair of Narine and Varun Chakravarthy, Pandya was king.
And then, there was Kohli. He brought up his half-century off 30 balls with four boundaries and three sixes. En route, Kohli reached the milestone of 1000 runs against KKR. If Phil Salt brought power, Kohli produced the panache at a venue he scored an IPL century in 2019. There was a six off Spencer Johnson that flew over the bowler’s head. And for all those who thought he wouldn’t play the sweep, Kohli produced one, to Chakravarthy no less. Just to show that was no fluke, there was another off the same bowler in the 11th over. He was not out on 59, the highest score of the night.
Speaking to Khan earlier in the evening, Rinku Singh had said his tribe was ready to give the seniors “takkar.” There were cameos from Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Rajat Patidar and Salt began from where he had left off last year but if the first game was any indication, old is still gold in IPL. And MS Dhoni has not even started.
