Yeh IPL hai boss!! (The IPL so far...)

It’s that time of the year again, when the sun shines down baking the Indian ground, schools and colleges come to a close, the taxes are all done and the Indian Premier League takes centre stage. So the cricket carnival returns with it’s DLF maximums, Karbon Kamal catches, Danny Morrison’s interesting commentary with odd pauses and of course the dancing girls in strange outfits waving their pompoms!

The fifth edition that kick-started on Tuesday with Katy Perry singing and dancing while Priyanka Chopra or Piggy Chopps as she is more popularly known by, asking some strange questions and embarrassing the Chennai Super King’s players in their bright yellow jerseys.

The next day the first match of 76 got underway and in an otherwise dull and low-scoring affair, Sachin Tendulkar managed to turn a few years back and a few heads too, as he hit a brilliant six over extra-cover of Albie Morkel. Tendulkar in his elegant classy self made the shot look ridiculously easy and a very good example for any youngster out there watching. Check out the video here.

Cricket is one of the few games in which play stops completely when there is rain and the Delhi Daredevils versus Kolkata Knight Riders match was curtailed a few overs by rain making it a 12Twelve match and pitting brothers Irfan Pathan against Yusuf Pathan. Delhi came out on top thanks to Irfan’s genius with the bat, but the younger brother didn’t look very pleased by the result since Yusuf had lost. Guess these two brothers don’t fight often.

Outside the grounds far away from India, all the way in London, the recently bankrupt, Lalit Modi watching his brainchild go on without him was certainly irked and he launched a volley of tweets attacking the current running of the IPL and the people involved. Now wasn’t that expected?

In the Rajasthan Royals versus Kings XI Punjab, Trinidad and Tobago player, Super trooper – Kevon Cooper made sure that the limelight remained on him as he picked up 4 wickets on debut. He was also involved in a run out and managed to pluck two catches! Rajasthan spent just $50,000 on Cooper and it might be just the best bargain of the season. Earlier young Rahane scored a brilliant 98 asking more questions of his non-inclusion in the Indian team. Surely an India spot isn’t far away for this lad, if he keeps going the way he is.

Whoever said that T20 was a youngman’s game was certainly wrong and Muralitharan (just 10 days short of his 40th birthday) showed us why in Royal Challengers Bangalore’s first match as he spun a web of magic. Still as swift as ever Murali certainly doesn’t look his age and I’m sure many women out there would be wondering what is Murali’s secret.

So those are just a few things that really caught the eye in week one, and I’m sure that week two can only get better from here. Yeh IPL hai boss!!