Brendon McCullum added substance to the hype surrounding the inaugural Indian Premier League tournament as he struck the highest-ever individual Twenty20 score to lead the Kolkata Knight Riders to a 140-run opening match victory against the Bangalore Royal Challengers.
The New Zealand opener went some way to fulfilling his £350,000 price tag as he smashed 10 fours and 13 sixes to finish unbeaten on 158 from just 73 balls. It was an innings unlikely to be matched for the remainder of this 59-game tournament and one to delight the Knight Riders' Bollywood actor owner, Shah Rukh Khan, who watched on as McCullum's one-man assault led his franchise to 222 for three.
In reply the home side never threatened to haul in their victory target as their top eight batsman failed to reach double figures before they were eventually bowled out for 82. But it was McCullum who stole all the headlines on the opening night of this eagerly-anticipated tournament.
Following a 45-minute opening ceremony Bangalore captain Rahul Dravid won the toss and elected to field in front of a capacity crowd at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. Praveen Kumar's opening over proved anti-climactic with only one run coming from the bat, a mis-timed pull by McCullum from the final ball. But the New Zealander was quickly into his stride belting four consecutive boundaries from Zaheer Khan's next over, including a fortuitous top edge over third man.
Subdued performances from Sourav Ganguly (10 from 12 balls) and Ricky Ponting (20 from 20) failed to slow McCullum. The 26-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman breezed past Cameron White's previous highest Twenty20 mark of 141 with a contrived lap-sweep over the wicketkeeper's head, before finishing the innings with three sixes from the final over.
The home reply began poorly as they lost the early wickets of Rahul Dravid (two) and Virat Kohli (one) before Jacques Kallis struck the first boundary of the innings in the fourth over, planting Ajit Agarkar over mid-off. But the South Africa all-rounder fell next ball, mis-timing a drive to Murali Kartik at mid-on, to usher a steady stream of wickets. Tailender Kumar (18 not out) was the only Bangalore batsman to reach double figures, but he was left unbeaten when Sunil Joshi was the last man to fall, befittingly caught by McCullum at deep point to complete the comfortable win.
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