I had been to today’s IPL cricket match at Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore. The match was played between the Rajhasthan Royal and the Royal Challengers. It was to begin at 8PM, but we (3 cousins, uncle and me) reached there early (around 5PM) to avoid the last minute rush. The stands were pretty empty at that time, however, it began to fill up pretty quick later on. We were wondering how to kill time till 8, but thanks to Kailash Kher’s amazing concert from 6PM to 7PM, time just flew. He sang his hit songs from the album Kailasa and also, Chakde Phatte, Allah Ke Bandhe and a few others. He even quipped in a few lines of a Kannada song! That was a good surprise. 🙂

The concert was closely followed by a laser-light show. It lasted for 10 minutes during which the stadium was plunged into darkness and multi-colored lasers light filled the whole area in a variety of patterns. By this time, the players had come out to the field for their warm-up exercises, inviting huge cheers from the crowd and the announcer shouting out the rules for the third time in the evening. By about 7.30PM, the toss took place, and the Royal Challengers (the team I supported) lost it. 😦 Sharne Warne the captain of the Rajhasthan Royals elected to field and put the Challengers on to bat. (This was actually good for us, getting to see the boys bat first!)

Our joys lasted only a few moments, when the Challengers put up an awful show, losing a lot of wickets very early and desperately tried to put a decent amount of runs on the board. We used to cheer aloud for every boundary and also for extras! Lol! We were all hungry and drank soft drinks and ate chaats, paying twice the amount of money we would have normally paid for it outside! Anyways, the Challengers after putting a very low target on the board, started off the bowling pretty well taking two quick wickets. But that was the end. Shane Watson and Graeme Smith took the match away from the Challengers with awesome shots all round the park!

Though we lost the match, the atmosphere of the crowd at the stadium was amazing and always kept us at the edge of the seats; screaming, shouting and singing along to the tunes that were played every time anything happened (Like a fall of the wicket, a boundary or end of an over).

And I really couldn’t end this post without mentioning the beautiful cheerleaders (flown all the way from the US of A – The Washington Redskins). They were clad in the least possible clothing and rocked to the tunes of Justin Timberlake, Jab We Met, and a few other popular Kannada and Hindi songs.

After the match got over, (by around 11PM) I got the bike and returned home; enjoying the ride zooming through the (very little) traffic. All-in-all, it was an enjoyable experience and worth the money that we had paid for the tickets!