IPL2: Day 1,Of Shilpa Shetty,Geoffrey Boycott and the dog on the field

The first day of the IPL2 flagged of with Mumbai Indians Vs the Chennai Super Kings.It was an euphoric setting ,almost seemed like a dream with so much of confusion about where and when the IPL2 would be played. Full credit to Cricket South Africa,South African government for such a warm welcome and an impressive turnaround time for this beautiful feast of cricket.
Also the genius of Lalit Modi ( a tad emotional at the opening ceremony and we know how busy he has been when he thanked his family for supporting him for being out )and his team at IMG Sports group have worked really hard to make this event a reality. Whats Ironical is that the president of South Africa quipped at the opening ceremony and urged all South Africans to take a break from cricket on 22 nd April and go and cast a vote. Wonder what the Indian politicians have to say about this and the outflux of revenues which would make South Africa richer by 1 billion Rand. Indian restaurants ,hotels are set to loose close to 50-60 crores and so is the airline industry with so much of travel. Official tour packages offered by Kingfisher Airlines starts at Rs 49,999 and seems a great deal with interest picking up.
On the upside ,IPL2 is set to be huge money spinner during times of recession in South Africa and is the perfect example of New Age entertainment that has almost everything from the glamour and high profile personalities of near demi-God Indian cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar ,Mahendra Dhoni to the Bollywood spice of Shahrukh Khan,Priety Zinta and Shilpa Shetty.
The IPL2 is all set to earn close to 1000 crores with Media rights from MSM(Multi screen Media) or Sony Entertainment Television or Max having sold 85 percent of add space to 7 main sponsors.
Now about the matches:
To be honest at 2pm IST, the overlooming dark clouds dint augur well. It almost looked to be a dark gloomy day.
Mumbai Indians v Chennai Superkings
I think Mahindra Singh Dhoni the fortuitous Indian Captain got his team selection absolutely wrong.Mutthiah Murlitharan an off-spinner would have been extremely difficult to hit for Abhishek Nayar whose 22 run over of the 1.44 million worth Andrew Flintoff and was the turning point of the match for me.Also Albie Morkel the all-rounder from South Africa fresh from the series with the Aussies would have been an ideal bowler and batsmen when he required to accelerate the scoring while chasing down Mumbai Indians total.Lasith Malinga bowled really well and his Yorkers and control at the death augurs really well for Mumbai Indians.
But great credit to the greatest Batsmen of all time Sachin Tendulkar to create the leveraging space for Abhishek Nayar to score the way he did and it was Sachins calming yet Godly influence that Abhishek could play the way he could.
It was literally the dogs day out at the match as another highlight where in everyone from the cricketers like the dog crazy Dhoni and ruffled security guards had a tough time driving him out of the ground.It also seemed like watching the match in Mumbai with Shahrukh Khan sitting right in between Neeta and Mukesh Ambani and more than anything they seemed cheering the fact that IPL2 was more than underway.
Bangalore Royal Challengers V Rajasthan Royals:
The highlight of the day was Shilpa Shetty with Mr Geoffrey Boycott who were cheering for Rajasthan Royals. I feel Kevin Peterson got it wrong by leaving Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher out, looking at the fact that the bowl would swing and seam and those two had been playing the aussies in South Africa compared to say a Ross Taylor whose a pure batsmen and he yet to be acclimatized to the conditions.
Rahul Dravid just showed what a class act he is and his humbleness at the post match presentation when asked by Ravi Shashtri about waving his bat in a peculiar way on reaching 50 if that was to prove a point.His answer really humbles me as a cricket fan of the legend.
Shane Warne will go down the as the best undisputed captain who never led the Australian side.I am sure his pro-activeness and his cricketing ability is of sheer genius that words can describe.Even Graeme smith ,South africas intelligent captain could learn a trick or two.His control and accurate bowling after he resumed bowling only in a practice match ,a week before ,right after last years IPL was immaculate and his two dismissals leg-spinners ultimate fantasies.Brilliant.
Kevin Peterson seemed buoyed by the South African crowd and the more they booed him the more swankier and classier are his shots.But the ultimate highlight was Pravin Kumars quick inroads and the legend of a well oiled clinical Jumbo Anil Kumle whose figures 3.1 over 5 wickets for 5 runs was simply his charismatic best.
Bowling straight,with flippers and the lately developed wrong one on south African wickets with bounce Anil Kumble is the most under-rated Spin Legend and match winner the world has ever revered.