Royal Challengers v/s Cape Cobras
The shortest and most famous version of India's favorite game came to town in the form of the 'Airtel Champions League T20'. The opening match between the 'Royal Challengers of Bangalore' and the South African domestic champions 'Cape Cobras' was slated to be held at the 'yumM Chinnaswamy Stadium' on the 8th of October and like good cricket fans, we decided not to miss this oppurtunity.
We underestimated the Bengaluru residents craze to follow cricket and like a bunch of good old lazy pals, didn't bother to book our tickets till the morning of the game. The fact that the 'Opening ceremony' was to be held earlier that evening somehow didn't cross our mind and by the time we had realized it, we were caught up in a crazy maze of cars and bikes on Cubbon road and only managed to enter the stadium half way through the opening ceremony!!
The intial plan was to get some good tickets so that we could get as close to our cricketing heroes, but thanks to our laziness, we ended up on the topmost and last row of the top tier, square of the wicket, from where we ended up saying the following to each other:
"Ohh look, that looks like Rahul Dravid"
"Ahh, that has to be Anil Kumble......"
"See ra.....Mark Boucher!!"
After the lights, lasers, dances and fireworks the toss happened and as the players began to get ready, it was time for the crowd to cheer on each and everyone they could set their eye upon. First the players came out to shake hands and there was a loud cheer....then the 'cheer girls' came out and there was a louder cheer!!
The loudest cheer, however, was surprisingly reserved for the one-and-only Dr. Vijay Mallya, to whom the entire city of Bengaluru looks upto. I must say here that the 'King of good times' or 'Mallya maam' as Aashish and me fondly call him, has been instrumental in bringing Bangalore on the international scene. Thanks to his 5-star airline and ownership of teams like RCB and 'Force India F1' the world has recognized Bangalore as a serious destination for sporting events apart from just another beer hub of India.
Coming back to the stadium, the toss was won by 'Uncle Jumbo' who decided to have a bat first and a good partmership between the two home boys - Rahul Dravid and Robin Uthappa, saw the home team get off to a flying start after loosing 'Kaallisaa' in the 3rd over. The fireworks, however, were provided by kiwi Roass Taylor whose 51 of 34 balls ensured that RCB reached a total of 180 in the slated 20 overs.
What followed in the second innings was a knock of a life time by young South African Jean-Paul Duminy who scored 99 runs of 52 balls to guide his team home with 3 balls to spare!!
In the end, we thoroughly enjoyed the 4 hours we spent that the stadium and felt it was totally worth the Rs. 350/- we had paid for the tickets. This was my first outing at the 'yumM Chinnaswamy' and looking forward to many more matches here hopefully with a better result for the home team - be it the Challengers of Anil Kumble or the dynamos of M S Dhoni......
We underestimated the Bengaluru residents craze to follow cricket and like a bunch of good old lazy pals, didn't bother to book our tickets till the morning of the game. The fact that the 'Opening ceremony' was to be held earlier that evening somehow didn't cross our mind and by the time we had realized it, we were caught up in a crazy maze of cars and bikes on Cubbon road and only managed to enter the stadium half way through the opening ceremony!!
The intial plan was to get some good tickets so that we could get as close to our cricketing heroes, but thanks to our laziness, we ended up on the topmost and last row of the top tier, square of the wicket, from where we ended up saying the following to each other:
"Ohh look, that looks like Rahul Dravid"
"Ahh, that has to be Anil Kumble......"
"See ra.....Mark Boucher!!"
After the lights, lasers, dances and fireworks the toss happened and as the players began to get ready, it was time for the crowd to cheer on each and everyone they could set their eye upon. First the players came out to shake hands and there was a loud cheer....then the 'cheer girls' came out and there was a louder cheer!!
The loudest cheer, however, was surprisingly reserved for the one-and-only Dr. Vijay Mallya, to whom the entire city of Bengaluru looks upto. I must say here that the 'King of good times' or 'Mallya maam' as Aashish and me fondly call him, has been instrumental in bringing Bangalore on the international scene. Thanks to his 5-star airline and ownership of teams like RCB and 'Force India F1' the world has recognized Bangalore as a serious destination for sporting events apart from just another beer hub of India.
Coming back to the stadium, the toss was won by 'Uncle Jumbo' who decided to have a bat first and a good partmership between the two home boys - Rahul Dravid and Robin Uthappa, saw the home team get off to a flying start after loosing 'Kaallisaa' in the 3rd over. The fireworks, however, were provided by kiwi Roass Taylor whose 51 of 34 balls ensured that RCB reached a total of 180 in the slated 20 overs.
What followed in the second innings was a knock of a life time by young South African Jean-Paul Duminy who scored 99 runs of 52 balls to guide his team home with 3 balls to spare!!
In the end, we thoroughly enjoyed the 4 hours we spent that the stadium and felt it was totally worth the Rs. 350/- we had paid for the tickets. This was my first outing at the 'yumM Chinnaswamy' and looking forward to many more matches here hopefully with a better result for the home team - be it the Challengers of Anil Kumble or the dynamos of M S Dhoni......
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