Kotla crowd rock to Dangal song at opening ceremony
UTHAPPA SHOWED THE KIND OF CONTROLLED AGGRESSION EXPECTED OF A NO 3 BATSMAN IN A T20 GAME, MAKING 68 AND TAKING KKR TO 172/6
innings’ first six and hitting at least one boundary in three of his overs.
Uthappa hit a six each in the ninth, 10th and 11th overs, the last one a half-sweep after stepping out to Henriques, typifying the improvisation central to T20 batting. Ashish Nehra thought he had Uthappa caught behind in the 13th over, but the ball had brushed his pad.
Uthappa celebrated by hitting successive boundaries and Pandey ended that over with a four through extra cover.
Using his feet, Pandey attacked Bipul Sharma in the 16th over, hitting him for a six and four.
A six and a four also hap- pened in the next over from Ben Cutting, before Pandey fell to a slower one from Kumar.
Uthappa and Pandey, who survived an easy stumping off left-arm spinner Bipul Sharma in the 10th over, rebuilt the innings adding 77 in 52 balls to give KKR a fighting score.
The bowlers then took over.
The series of Indian Premier League (IPL) opening ceremonies ended on a high as actress Yami Gautam and rapper Raftaar thrilled the crowd with their performances at the Ferozshah Kotla Stadium in New Delhi on Saturday.
The ceremony started with Punjabi singer Raftaar performing on his famous song - ‘Dhakkad’ from the film ‘Dangal’before singing a couple of his other blockbusters.
The two captains - Zaheer Khan of Delhi Daredevils and Glenn Maxwell from Kings XI Punjab made their way to the stage where they posed with the IPL trophy and the DD skipper presented Maxwell with a memento. The two captains were accompanied by performers who showed off their talent.
Next up, a video package was played on the giant screen chronicling the journey of Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League.
The star attraction of the opening ceremony was Bollywood actress Yami Gautam who set the stage of fire with her dancing. She presented a dashing performance on ‘Rum Whiskey’ from the film ‘VIcky Donor’ and ‘Nachenge Saari Raat’ from her other film ‘Junooniyat’.
The last act of the day was well known Punjabi singer Guru Randhawa who entertained the almost-filled stadium with his song ‘Suit’ before a display of fireworks marked the end of the ceremony.