Brendon McCullum’s 158* in the first-ever match of the Indian Premier League was the most suitable entry ticket to a whole new world. It was 2008. T20 formats were still a baby(even though women’s cricket played their first match in 2004).
April 2008 witnessed all the hype around the tournament. There were multi-dollar sponsors, the money was big talk.
Kolkata Knight Riders took on Royal Challengers Bangalore in the latter’s den. The stage was all set, RCB’s then-owner Vijay Mallya threw the coin and Rahul Dravid opted to bowl. Lesser did he knew what followed.
McCullum began slowly by playing out Praveen Kumar’s first over. However, he made it up with 4,4,6,4 in the Zaheer Khan’s over. He then respected Praveen Kumar once again and when Ashley Noffke replaced Zaheer, he took him out for 22 runs. Ganguly, probably, showed how it’s done against Praveen Kumar with a classic Dada pull. McCullum took the hint, smashed him for a boundary as well.
After losing Ganguly to Kallis, McCullum was joined by Ponting and two quiet overs later, he got to his fifty in 32 deliveries.
A few boundaries here and there and McCullum pushed Ganguly and Ponting to mere bystanders. Then came Cameron White.
White who scored 141 not out for Somerset against Worcestershire in 2006 which was for a losing cause came in, bowled an over that went for 26, pushing McCullum to 99.
In the 15.3 overs, McCullum made it to the first-ever 100, 102 off 55 deliveries. And the fireworks resumed once again.
He treated Kallis worse, took him for 20 runs. Then came Praveen Kumar who bowled the final over, contrasting to his first. 6,6,2,0,2,6. He went past the then-highest T20 score, managed 158* off 73 deliveries. The innings had ten fours and ten sixes.
Now, this is a kind of innings you’d expect from players like Gilchrist. Of course, McCullum was a class batter but nobody expects a wicketkeeper to do this. It was 2008. McCullum had played similar knocks for Otago but nobody would have watched it, blame the time zone.
It was all new. Fresh. Going into a tournament like this, nobody knew what to ask for. Visitors came in all the way to watch Dravid, Ganguly and Ponting do wonder. However, they were all reduced to spectators. McCullum had the driver’s seat began the IPL’s ride in a pretty good way. He fulfilled all the expectations, justified the price tag, entertained 40,000 spectators and impressed the rich owners who cashed big loads of money on the tournament.
In return, RCB were reduced to 82. Ashoke Dinda had 2 for 9, Ishant Sharma had 1 for 7, Ajit Agarkar had 3 for 25, Sourav Ganguly had 2 for 21. However, the night belonged to McCullum. The party belonged to McCullum. In the past 13 years, there are thousands of knocks that had come quicker than this. Mind you, it all began here, he had set the bar. It was a path shown by McCullum which everyone else followed.
https://www.iplt20.com/video/30225
