The news that has reached newsrooms of all leading dailies and magazines and television channels is that KKR jerseys are simply flying off the shelves and retailers are lamenting why they did not have a larger stock. This is just to get an idea of the public hysteria that the first match of IPL 2013 has generated.
The city of Kolkata is literally shivering with expectation even though there is palpable tension in the city due to the death of a student leader from the main opposition party of the state. Had it been any other day, people would have remained cautious before leaving their homes but today nothing like that will cross the minds of cricket crazy Kolkatans.
Kolkata Knight Riders vs Delhi Daredevils Highlights
This is the first match of 2013 IPL and the team from their own city is taking the field as last year’s champions; what can be more glorious than that for an average Kolkatan? All those could afford the sky high prices of tickets are already there at the stadium soaking in the atmosphere of the venue and all those could not are already in a do or die battle for the TV remote in their houses.
Dare Devils is not in a very happy position with their team. Their batting lynchpin, the legendary Virendar Sehwag is down with a mystery back spasm and will in all likelihood not take the field tonight. Jessy Ryder, the newly acquired $300,000 batting sensation is struggling with non-cricketing injury at a hospital in his native New Zealand and will not appear in this season at all.
Kevin Pietersen, the legendary destroyer with the cricket bat is not fit and will also not play for his team this season. Albie Morkel, winner of last year’s purple cap, will also not be there in the tournament opener. So, no matter what Daredevil’s coach Eric Simons utters, he is simply unable to mask his anxiety and helplessness at the prevailing situation.
But, all said and done, Jayawardene, captain of Delhi Daredevils, and his firebrand team of David Warner, Manprit Juneja and the one and only Morne Morkel will sure turn on the screws for Kolkata Knight Riders. They will give their last ounce of energy on the field to wrest glory from last year’s champions. They might also feel motivated and enthused from the fact that they had actually defeated Kolkata Knight Riders during the league phase of last year’s tournament.
But last year was twelve months ago and things were so very different during that season. Sehwag was in pristine form slamming five half centuries on the trot and managed to maintain an astounding strike rate of more than 160. It is of course another matter that the team could not maintain that tempo beyond semi-final stage but one simply cannot forget the heavenly music that Sehwag’s rampaging blade created last season.
Kolkata Knight Riders is also not free from their injury niggles either, Captain Gautam Gambhir has just recovered from a bout of jaundice that prevented his fortuitous return to test team just about a fortnight ago.
Brendon McCullum is also nursing a hamstring injury and to make matters worse, Shakib Al Hasan, a star player from Bangladesh, has not yet been able to make his way to India from faraway Zimbabwe where Bangladesh national cricket team had been touring recently.
So, as spectators all that one can do is to hold their breath and wait for the drama to unfold.
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