IPL Live

Waiting for the game to start

Rushil made a couple of posters

Check out the packed audience, tickets were sold out.

Anil Kumble (team captain)  and Rahul Dravid

Rushil's new Mumbai Indians t-shirt

I attended my first IPL cricket match at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) played against the Mumbai Indians with Sachin Tendulkar as their star captain. 

Highlights and Lowlights of the Game:

• Rushil saw his idol Sachin Tendulkar play. He agonized whether to support RCB or Mumbai Indians but finally gave in and supported Mumbai. 
• Sachin got out after only a few runs and Rushil cried as he was so disappointed. Mumbai redeemed themselves by eventually winning the game.  
• Later when Mumbai was fielding,  Rushil was thrilled to get a few more glimpses of Sachin. The audience cheered for Sachin throughout the match, he is so popular, it doesn't matter that he's with Mumbai, everyone supports him.  Everytime, he walked in the direction of a section of the audience, they cheered for him..
• It was fun watching a game live. It definitely gave me a different perspective and understanding of the game. It was a bit thrilling to see the players in person. It was no different than going to a hockey or a baseball match I suppose but given I have been avidly watching the matches for the past month, I was familiar with most of the players which made it even more entertaining.  
• The game was delayed by an hour, two small bombs went off at two entrances of the stadium around the time we were entering.  About 14 people were injured and they had to diffuse one more bomb. Apparently, the bombs were meant to go off at 8pm when everyone was departing but they went off early.  My cousins and a few people called us to find out if everything was ok. Sitting in the stadium, we didn't have enough information and we were oblivious to what was happening outside.   It was only later from the internet that we found out what happened. Although my cousin recommended that we leave the stadium, Prasad thought it was safer for us to be in the stadium rather than leave, one of our friends received so many SMSs from their friends that they actually left the stadium before the game started. If one of the bombs had gone off at 8pm when the match was over, it would have been dangerous for us to be there, not because of the bomb per se but the hysteria it would have created with the masses of people in and around the stadium. 
• RCB lost miserably, we even left  the match early as we knew there was no more hope for RCB. 
• Deepika Padukone was in the audience and Sindhu was thrilled to get a few glimpses of her on the big TV screen . Sindhu is ready to see another match just to see Deepika again. Sindhu was mostly bored throughout the match, she definitely enjoyed all the junk food but spent some part of the match reading her book.
• Rushil got a Mumbai Indians t-shirt with Sachin's name and number on the back, I'm not sure if he'll wear anything else for the next few days.