Published: Apr 08, 2015, 01:00 AM (IST)
Edited: Apr 08, 2015, 03:48 AM (IST)
The opening ceremony of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2015 turned out to be a damp squib. The rain delayed it and many would have wished it stayed the same. Nikhil Popat does the hard job and picks out the five things that stood out.
1. Rain: If the entire nation was waiting for the ‘India ka Tyohar’, they had to wait for a couple of hours as the thunderstorms and rain delayed the ceremony by a couple of hours. The organizers were determined to get it going, which finally happened after the rain gods relented. Till then, viewers had Shoaib Akhtar and Navjot Singh Sidhu to entertain them along with Sameer Kochhar in “Extraaa Innings”. Updates: IPL 2015 Opening Ceremony
2. Saif Ali Khan: The ‘Nawab’ had a torrid time anchoring the IPL opening ceremony. He had to pause, think, had things said to him for the ceremony to go. The rain seemed to have taken out the energy out of him. What summarized his performance was that at the end, he had mention fireworks, for them to actually go off. Safe to say, he was not a safe option. IPL 2015: Schedule with venue details
3. Virat Kohli: How can you keep Bollywood and Cricket away? When the Bollywood actress came out for her performance, the cameras, lights all zoomed to Virat Kohli to get his reaction. She had recently showed her aggressive nature to a reporter who asked her about her personal life. If only, we knew to not cross the line. But for the day, the crowd cheered every time the camera panned to Kohli during Anushka’s performance. IPL 2015: Points Table and Team Standings
4. Bloopers: It takes special talent to do things out of nowhere, the most comedic moment turned out to be when the host Saif Ali Khan asked for the captains to head out for the signing the Spirit of Cricket bat. When Saif called out for Shikhar Dhawan (representing Sunrisers Hyderabad since David Warner is still not in India), Rohit Sharma came out. If that was not enough, Rohit went onto try his luck, standing on what was a Mumbai Indian logo lighted up. He slipped and recovered quickly. IPL 2015: Complete Coverage
There was another blooper waiting to happen though. Shahid Kapoor was the first performer and he too had a rough start. He banged his bike into the stage due to the wet outfield and almost slipped a couple of times while dancing, but he recovered well enough. He was honest enough to accept that after the ceremony and let all know what had happened through his tweet. In all this local, Sourav Ganguly kept smiling all throughout the ceremony.
Banged the bike broke the stage . Felt the love . Amaze. pic.twitter.com/PUe7777QhK
— Shahid Kapoor (@shahidkapoor) April 7, 2015
5. Hrithik Roshan: The saving grace of the IPL 2015 opening ceremony was Hrithik Roshan, by some distance. He was the last one to perform and did his best to make up for all the bloopers made by some of his Bollywood colleagues. He was energetic, pumped up, and built a good atmosphere during his performance, ensuring the day ended on a high. Earlier in the day, he met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on April 7 and promised to attend the 21st edition of the Kolkata International Film Festival to be held later this year.
Today @iHrithik called on me at Nabanna on a courtesy visit. He has come to #Kolkata for IPL inauguration pic.twitter.com/HAcCkvcaNr
— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) April 7, 2015
We all can’t wait to get back to cricket, the first match will be held tomorrow between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Mumbai Indians (MI) at Eden Gardens at 8.00 pm IST. READ: KKR vs MI IPL 2015 Match 1 Preview
(Nikhil Popat is a cricket lover and a PotterHead, who loves to be himself, and is not shy of expressing himself. He can be followed on Twitter @CricCrazyNIKS)
