The Moment Brendon McCullum Unveiled IPL to the World!

(Brendon McCullum registered the century in the first match of the IPL 2008)

When the T20 cricket was a new format and everyone was looking to crack the code to master it, the Official Board of Control for Cricket in India introduced the tournament named Indian Premier League which proved to be a revolution in this format and introduced some of the best possible things to come over in the game. However, with the first season of the Indian Premier League around, there was hardly any hype because of the format it was and the foreign players coming to India to play with the Indian players in a friendly manner. With all this going around, it was the innings of Brendon McCullum that absolutely smashed the closed doors and brought the IPL in front of the cricket fans.

Brendon McCullum’s 158 runs from just 73 balls

The date was 18th April 2008 when the first match of the Indian Premier League was played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Kolkata Knight Riders. With the toss coming in Bangalore’s favour, they stepped up to bowl first and it was the decision that came down as the worst decision for the team. While opening the batting, Sourav Ganguly and Brendon McCullum started smashing the Bangalore bowlers well.

In just 4 overs, the team crossed the 50 runs mark and in the 6th over, they lost the wicket of Sourav Ganguly and after a few overs, even Ricky Ponting departed. Despite wickets falling at the other end and them playing at a low strike rate, it was McCullum who ensured that the fans got proper entertainment through his batting. From just 53 balls, he completed his century and became the first centurion of the Indian Premier League which made it possible to make the league famous.

(Brendon McCullum playing shots during his 158 runs innings)

By the end of the 19th over, the Kolkata Knight Riders team was passed through 200 runs, and hence in just the first match of the season, the 200 runs mark was breached which allowed the fans to know how the T20 format is played and the intent that it brings out amongst the batters to get those big runs. With scoop shots, cover dives, and by taking a huge amount of risk, McCullum also completed his 150 runs from the 70 balls played and finally, the team ended up with a total of 222 runs with the loss of 3 wickets from their 20 overs.

Talking about the Royal Challengers Bangalore bowlers, it was a tough night for them and were able to pick only 3 wickets. The best bowler for the team was Zaheer Khan who managed to pick a wicket in his 4 overs and gave away 38 runs in the process. Now, for the Bangalore batters, it was a tough task to come out and chase the target and hence everyone present in the stadium left the hopes of a Bangalore win after the first innings itself.

(Kolkata Knight Riders bowlers against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the match)

From the Royal Challengers Bangalore team, the duo of Rahul Dravid and Wasim Jaffer came out to open and both were looking to chase down the target well, However, the wickets of Rahul Dravid and Virat Kohli made it difficult for the team at the start and hence it was a proper collapse from the team which failed to make their impact felt in the first match of the season and hence they got a proper defeat from the Kolkata team.

Only one batter from the whole team was able to reach the double digits as Praveen Kumar made 18 runs from 15 balls while the rest of the batters contributed only 45 runs because there were 19 runs as extras too which made the total 82 runs. From the Kolkata bowlers, Ajit Agarkar was the bowler who started the collapse and finished at 3 wickets from his 4 overs by giving away just 25 runs to the opposition team.

(Kolkata Knight Riders team celebrating after picking the wicket of Rahul Dravid)

Brendon McCullum was chosen as the Man of the Match for his brilliant innings of 158 runs from just 73 balls and he ensured that the team reached a big total and made them win the match. Furthermore, his innings made it possible for IPL to conquer the world on just the first day of the tournament as reaching the 200 runs mark was a new thing during that time and it helped the media to cover it properly. During an interview, McCullum said that:

“That night, my life changed completely in the space of those three hours or actually, even an hour and a half. You talk about sliding doors and moments in your careers and in lives. Why was I the one who got that opportunity to be able to go and face (the) first (delivery) with Sourav Ganguly? How did I get a chance to play in the first game, have the first opportunity to bat in such a huge tournament for world cricket? How was I even able to grab that opportunity? How much luck did I have along the way? Honestly, I don’t know the answers to any of these, but what I do know is that it changed my life forever.”

Now, it has been 17 years since the start of the Indian Premier League and every season, the fans and the players are deeply engaged in this league to make it better and bigger because of the way it has been on the global stage. Players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni and many more players have built their legacy from the IPL and even the Indian team has got some young players from the league which has allowed them to get better and bigger in the seasons played by them.