Kolkata Knight Riders went first for the Super Over. KKR would bat – their assigned three batsmen would be Chris Gayle, Brendan McCullum and Sourav Ganguly.

Chris Gayle was the hero of the super-over for Kolkata Knight Riders. He hit three fours, bringing up a total of 15 runs for KKR.

Rajasthan Royals would need 16 runs to win the super over and the match.

Rajasthan Royal’s Yusuf Pathan managed a six off the first ball bowled by Ajantha Mendis. A better start to their over than KKR for sure. Will they manage to sustain it? It looks like the choice o Ajantha Mendis, a spinner, backfired.

But there was no stopping Yusuf Pathan, and Rajasthan Royals carried IPL’s first super over and the game.

John Buchchanan and Shah Rukh Khan would be hopping mad!

There you have it guys – IPL’s first spectacular success: The Super Over! Nothing has brought people such edge-of-the-seat entertainment than the first ever Super Over. Lalit Modi would laugh himself to sleep tonight.

“As a member of the Kolkata Knight Riders it is good to be here for the tournament and we have appointed McCullum as our team captain, which we are very happy about,” Buchanan told reporters here.

Buchanan added that McCullum was the best option for the team, which is aiming for a semi-final berth in the IPL season 2. He also stated that Saurav Ganguly, who captained the side in the IPL season 1, has taken the news well and is a part of the core group.

Earlier in April 2009, Buchanan had proposed his multiple captaincy theory, which did not go very well with KKR’s ex-captain Saurav Ganguly.

Then, Ganguly had openly opposed the idea saying, “Tomorrow I can ask for four different coaches.”

A number of other cricketers,  including Sunil Gavaskar, Dileep Vengsarkar, and Shane Warne, also opposed Buchanan’s multiple captaincy theory.

On the other hand, team owner Shahrukh Khan said that the idea should be given a chance and he would rather try and fail instead of not trying.

In their first IPL season 2 match, that will take place on April 19, 2009, KKR will take on the Hyderabad Deccan Chargers.

Brendan McCullum is the wicket-keeper and opening batsman of the New Zealand team. The 27-year-old, known for his aggressive batting skills, scored 158 unbeaten runs in the first match of the Kolkata Knight Riders, on April 18, 2008, in IPL season 1.

His unbeaten 158 is the highest score ever in a Twenty20 match.

The IPL season 2, which will run from April 18 – May 25, 2009, was kicked off on April 16, 2009, with much fanfare.

A procession of the eight franchisees with the teams and team owners, passed through the city centre in Cape Town, with the crowds cheering from both sides of the road. The Kolkata Knight Riders tableaux was a huge draw because of the immense popularity of team owner and Bollywood superstar, Shahrukh Khan.

The eight franchisees in the IPL are Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Hyderabad Deccan Chargers, Rajasthan Royals, Kings XI Punjab, Delhi Daredevils, and Kolkata Knight Riders.

The IPL Season 1 winning team was the Shane Warne-led Rajasthan Royals while the runner-up was the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings.

Sidhu said, “Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders and the Chennai Super Kings team are the strongest if we compare the players on the paper. But I will put my money on the Mohali team to hold the championship trophy as I am a Punjabi.”

DLF IPL has taken the world by storm and is good for the betterment of players, Sidhu said. He also said that the premier league in India will change the face of world cricket.

“No one would have imagined that so many runs could be scored in a 40 over game. Nowadays, nobody wants to sit and watch cricket for five days. Mr Pawar is like (Formula One driver Michael) Schumacher who has taken the cricket in a fast lane,” Sidhu said.

When asked about the Indian Cricket League (ICL), Sidhu said ICL has been ruined completely. But Sidhu also had a word of caution for the Twenty20 format. He said that as time progresses, viewers could well lose interest in the game.

Considering the matches so far, I guess we can agree with Siddhu here. Kolkata Knight Riders definitely looked strong on the field too, not just on paper. And they seem to be the team that has gelled well – despite the presence of such rivals as Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly in the same team.

Chennai Super Kings had a brilliant game – but they have had only one, and they meet Mumbai Indians who has already lost once against a pretty shoddy Bangalore Royal Challengers.

Kolkata Knight Riders are leading the points table of the DLF IPL tournament with two wins from two matches.

The Knight Riders team is confident of maintaining their winning momentum to win the DLF IPL tournament.

According to Kolkata captain Sourav Ganguly, “We have started well and hope to continue this trend.” Owner Shah Rukh Khan is also of the same opinion. He says, “We have to continue to do well in the coming matches.”

In the opening match of the DLF  IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders squashed Bangalore Royal Challengers by handing them a 140 runs defeat in the match played at Bangalore. Bangalore Royal Challengers is owned by liquor barron Dr Vijay Mallya, who is also the owner of Force Indian F1 team. Bangalore Royal Challengers is led by Rahul Dravid, who is absent from the Indian one day team at the moment. Royal Challengers came back into the tournament with a win over Mumbai Indians on Sunday, I am sure much to the relief of poor Rahul Dravid.

In the second match of Kolkata Knight Riders, the Hyderabad Deccan Chargers had to bite the dust, the Hyderabad franchisee owned by the Deccan Chronicle on Sunday. Okay, it was not an easy victory for Kolkata, but they won it in the end. The two victories are keeping the team up in high spirits.

Shah Rukh Khan said, “Our coach has told the players that they have to deliver the best to succeed in the tournament. The team has to work hard.”

Looking at the matches so far, the only team which seemed to have a considerable advantage over their opponents is the Chennai Super Kings led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who is having a good run of luck. One can say the same about Shah Rukh Khan. It will be interesting to watch whose luck holds out.

In order to ensure that a better wicket is prepared for the coming matches, the pitch would be inspected by the IPL’s technical committee and the Cricket Association of Bengal. The pitch was difficult to play for the batsman mainly because of the unexpected rising and falling deliveries from the pacemen.

The pitch also saw Saurav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, the captains of Kolkata Knight Riders and Deccan Chargers respectively, getting hurt from the rising deliveries.

VVS Laxman Laxman said the erratic behaviour of the Eden Gardens pitch was shocking. “”This sort of wicket would not at all help Twenty20 or for that matter cricket in general,” he said.

Much to the surprise of the Kolkata Knight Riders team members, the Eden Gardens curator apologised to them for preparing such an erratic pitch. After the match, pitch curator Kalyan Mitra went to the Kolkata Knight Riders dressing room and apologised to the team members.

Ricky Ponting, Kolkata Knight Riders batsman, said, “The curator came to our dressing room after the match and apologised to all of us. He has promised a better wicket for our next match as also the five other games the team will play at the Eden later in the tournament.”

Efforts are also on to bring in a pitch specialist from Australia.  Eden Gardens will host its next match on April 29 when it will see Kolkata Knight Riders, the Kolkata franchisee of the DLF IPL being led by Saurav Ganguly and owned by Bollywood badshah Shah Rukh Khan, lock horns with Mumbai Indians, the Mumbai franchisee of DLF IPL being led by Sachin Tendulkar and owned by industrialist Mukesh Ambani.

At the moment, Kolkata Knight Riders is riding high with two wins from two matches and is leading the DLF IPL points table.

However, most cricket fans expected Indian heroes such as Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, M S Dhoni and Wasim Jaffer failed sympathetically in the first three matches of the IPL.

Meanwhile, these matches saw tremendous performance by three foreign players such as New Zealand’s Brendan McCullum, Australian star batsman Michael Hussey and Australian paceman Glenn McGrath.

Brendan McCullum has given a terrific start for the Indian Premier League by smashing a world record-high 158 not out for Kolkata in the opening Twenty20 shootout in Banglalore. This gave Kolkata Night Riders a comfortable victory over Bangalore Royal Challengers.

The team owned by Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan has many foreign players as its members. After a lavish ceremony to mark the launch of the league all eyes were on this opening fixture all eyes were on the performance of Kolakta Knight Riders.

The New Zealand wicketkeeper had scored 158 not out for just 73 balls, including 13 sixes – the highest individual score in the first match of IPL extravaganza. Unfortunately his teammate and captain of the team Sourav Ganguly could not thrill his fans as he managed to score only 10 runs in the opening match.

In comparison, team-mates Sourav Ganguly and Ricky Ponting managed just ten and 20 runs respectively, but Brendan McCullum’s efforts were enough to give the visitors a comfortable and ultimately unassailable lead.

However for the Bangalore Royal Challengers, most of the stars including Captain Rahul Dravid and foreign players such as Mark Boucher, Jacaues Kallis and White disappointed 55,000 odd people assembled in the ground expecting home side victory. The Bangalore local hero and former Indian team captain Rahul Dravid managed only two runs in the opening match.

It was a superb century from Australia’s Michael Hussey, which has helped star-studded Chennai Super Kings to a 33-run victory in their match against Punjab. Hussey, the world’s top-ranked Test batsman, produced a stunning innings of 116 not out from just 54 deliveries in their opening match. Another Chennai star, Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakara has scored a 54 in a thrilling smash. However Chennai Super King’s captain and Indian cricket team captain M S Dhoni failed and was able to take only two runs in the opening match.

But, the Left government had told Shah Rukh that he will have to pay the entertainment tax for the ten minute program that he had scheduled before the match. SRK then strongly cam against this demand saying the show is just a 10 minute show, not a three hour one where a viewer should pay an extertainment tax to the government. SRK had said that he would not pay the entertainment tax for the government for the program, which would have taken the ticket prices close to Rs 250.

At last, the Left Bengal government has said that Shah Rukh Khan will not have to pay the entertainment tax for the ten minute show. Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta has already approved Khan’s proposal. “I have no problem in waiving off the tax,” said Dasgupta.

But Dasgupta also set some conditions before Shah Rukh before waiving off the entertainment tax. Shah Rukh will have to promise the politician that the profits from the game would be used for the development of poor people in the state.

If the government had not gone back from its stand of imposing the entertainment tax, then Kolkata Knight Riders tickets would have been almost Rs 30 of what it cost now.

Obviously, Deccan Chargers captain VVS Laxman is impressed with the batting performance of Brendon McCullum. Laxman said when they get to the field today to lock horns with Knight Riders in Kolkata today with the home team, they would have a plan in hand to contain the explosive McCullum.

Laxman said, “I think it was an amazing innings. One of the best innings I have seen in this format of the game. The way he played he took away the game from the Bangalore Royal Challengers.”

Laxman and his team would keep in mind the Aussie’s performances, but they would mainly concentrate on the match situation, he said.

The Indian test batsman said, “We’ve got our plans worked out for him. But one has to keep in mind the fast-changing situations in Twenty20 cricket. You may have a plan one or plan two. But you have to keep judging by the situation you are in.”

Laxman seemed too impressed with the explosive Aussie. “I’m sure you will see more and more contributions from McCullum as the tourney progresses. The game became one-sided because of his brilliance.”

After an out-of-the box assault by Brendon McCullum against Bangalore Royal Challengers in the IPL opening clash, Kolkata Knight Riders now take on the most solid team on paper in the DLF IPL Twenty20 tournament – Deccan Chargers led by VVS Laxman.
A team which has Andrew Symmonds, Adam Gilchrist, Shahid Afridi, VVS Laxman, Chaminda Vaas and Scott Styris, Deccan Chargers are the most formidable side in this competition, at least in paper.
So Sourav Ganguly and his Kolkata Knight Riders have a task cut out.
Take McCullum’s heroics out of the last match and you would find hardly any difference between the two teams. Sourav wasn’t at his best and Ponting was too far way from convincing. Of course the bowling department did well, thanks largely to the insurmountable total put out by McCullum.
In the event of McCullum getting out early, Kolkata Knight Riders will have to have a Plan B. Law of averages doesn’t favor McCullum performing yet another heroic display, but any thing can happen in Twenty20.
Chris Gayle, who is the top scorer in Twenty20 (internationally recognised matches; IPL is not recognized officially by ICC as an international tournament), would not play due to an injury.
So the Kolkata Knight Riders are heavily dependent on Sourav Ganguly himself and Ricky Ponting.
A packed house is expected at Eden Gardens and that puts pressure on the home team itself, a lot more than Deccan Chargers. That is the burden of expectations that Sourav Ganguly should deal with. The huge crowd will also likely to be antagonistic towards Aussies like Andrew Symonds and to a lesser extent Adam Gilchrist, but these are top performers who have dealt with crowds through out the world. On the captaincy front, Sourav Ganguly has a huge benefit of a superb start as well as the solid backing of strategist and coach John Buchanan and another master skipper in Ricky Ponting. VVS Laxman on the other hand does not really fit the bill having lead Rest of India and Hyderabad teams only, without much to boast about.
Going by the past matches the team winning the toss prefers to bat first and put a solid score on board to defend.
In only one match,  Delhi Daredevils vs Rajasthan Royals, have the chasing team won so far. So toss would be vital.
The interesting contest of the match would be between new Indian pace sensation Ishant Sharma and Australian Andrew Symonds. Remember they are just out of a keen tussle Down Under.
Hyderabad also would miss a big hitter in Heschelle Gibbs, who is tied with a domestic tournament back home.
The Eden track is set to favour batsmen and since the line-up favours Deccan Chargers Kolkata Knight Riders would have to have another McCullum-like performance from some one.
Hyderabad Deccan Chargers have the edge in this contest, bookies say.

Teams:
Deccan Chargers
VVS Laxman, Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Nuwan Zoysa, Rohit Sharma, Scott Syris,  Chamara Silva, Chaminda Vaas, R P Singh, Haldhar Das, Pragyan Ojha, P Vijay Kumar, Sarvesh Kumar, Arjun Yadav, D Kalyan Krishna, Y Venugopal Rao.

Kolkata Knight Riders
Brendon McCullum, Sourav Ganguly, David Hussey, Ricky Ponting, Mohammad Hafeez, L R Shukla, Ishant Sharma, Ajit Agarkar, Murali Kartik, Siddharth Kaul, Iqbal Abdulah, Wriddhiman Saha, Rohan Banerjee, Aakash Chopra, Debabrata Das, Sourashish Lahiri, Cheteshwar Pujara, Prasanta Saha, Tatenda Taibu, Yashpal Singh.  
 

Kolkata Knight Riders, owned by Bollywood badshah Shah RUkh Khan, is in scintillating form after their mega victory against the Bangalore Knight Riders. The destructive attitude shown by Brendon McCullum and henceforth the victory over Bangalore Royal Challengers, is sure to attract a lot of attention from the Kolkata cricket fans for SUndays’s match against the mighty Deccan Chargers led by VVS Laxman.

Shah Rukh Khan said, “”At the Eden Gardens, where the matches will be played, we will exhibit two helmets, an 18-carat gold-plated and a diamond studded one, to show the other teams that we are the declared winners. The matches are just child’s play for us.”

SRK continued on the presence of Bollywood beauties at the Eden Gardens, “”I believe it’s my duty to entertain people whether it’s in films or in the IPL matches. Though I am not going to dance at the gallery, I will be present at the Eden (Garden). Rani (Mukherjee), Bipasha (Basu) and Kareena (Kapoor) have verbally confirmed their presence. With Kareena, now-a-days, we get a Saif Ali Khan free. So Saif can also be expected. I will personally try to convince John (Abraham) and Karan (Johar) to fly down as well.”

Meanwhile, Shah Rukh Khan’s fans club is also doing their bit of entertaining. The have arranged a procession from Hatibagan in central Kolkata to the Eden Gardens. A group of twenty belly dancers will add colours to the procession.

Arnab Roy, joint secretary of Shah Rukh Khan Fans Club, said, “We will also decorate the gallery with Knight Riders flags, banners and festoons. Shah Rukh has promised to help us deck up the gallery.”

Screening of selected matches of Kolkata Knight Riders would be held at various places across the Kolkata city. Kolkata is wearing a mask of excitement with Kolkata cricket fans wearing golden black hoardings and posters of the ‘Knights’ being displayed all across the city.

In the last match of the Kolkataq Knight Riders in Bangalore in which they demolished the Bangalore ROyal Challengers by a huge margin, Knight Riders captain Saurav ganguly had promised that the entertainment would be much larger in Eden Gardens.

After a disapponting start to the tickets sale, its confirmed that the tickets for  the first two Knight Riders matches, on April 20 against Deccan Chargers and April 29 against the Mumbai Indians, are sold out. Eden Gardens Kolkata will host seven of the total 14 matches of the Kolkata Knight Riders.