IPL: It is 18th April 2020 today which means exactly 12 years have passed since the historic match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. Every cricket fan remembers how Brendon McCullum set the tone for the tournament with his exploits in Bengaluru. The right-handed batsman from New Zealand played a career-defining inning of 158 runs which included ten fours and 13 sixes. His knock helped Kolkata Knight Riders record a big win over the home side.
This is the story that the entire cricket universe knows. However, there are 5 obscure yet important things from the 1st game of IPL that you may not remember. Here’s a list of those five things.
Sourav Ganguly and Ricky Ponting played in the same team
For the Indian cricket fans of the 90s, Ricky Ponting was the worst villain because his Australian team had denied Sourav Ganguly’s Indian team to win the World Cup in 2003. BCCI wanted to make it clear that there were no international boundaries in the IPL. And, for the first time, Ganguly and Ponting played in the same team, materializing BCCI’s aim.
Sourav Ganguly faced the first ball
Current Indian selection committee chief Sunil Joshi played that match
A lesser-known fact about the current Indian selection committee head, Sunil Joshi is that he played with the Indian captain, Virat Kohli in IPL 2008. Joshi was a part of Royal Challengers Bangalore and he bowled three overs for the home franchise on the first night of IPL. He gave away 26 runs in his spell, which included two maximums.
Praveen Kumar was the only RCB batsman to touch double figures
The Royal Challengers Bangalore batting line-up had some big names like Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, Jacques Kallis, and Cameron White in the first IPL match yet Praveen Kumar, who is known for his bowling skills, emerged as the only batsman to touch double figures. In an innings where RCB could score only 82 runs, Kumar remained not out on 18 off 15 balls.
Ashok Dinda dismissed Virat Kohli
The modern era fans know Ashok Dinda as a bowler who always leaked runs whenever he played T20 cricket. But, not many of them would remember that Dinda had picked up the wicket of Virat Kohli in the first IPL game. Dinda rattled the stumps of Kohli who was a part of the India U-19 team then.
