Published: Apr 06, 2017, 05:07 PM (IST)
Edited: Apr 06, 2017, 07:10 PM (IST)
Hello and welcome to CricketCountry’s coverage of the second opening ceremony of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 at the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium, Pune. The first day of the tournament saw an entertaining opening ceremony, wherein actress Amy Jackson performed. It also witnessed a high-scoring match between defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and last year’s runners-up Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). However, it was SRH, who got off to a winning start, beating RCB by 35 runs. The action now shifts to the second match of the tournament, which is between Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) and Mumbai Indians (MI). RPS have a new captain in Steven Smith, while Rohit Sharma will continue to lead MI in this edition of the IPL as well. Full Cricket Scorecard: RPS vs MI, IPL 2017 Match 2 at Pune
This is the first time that the IPL will have eight opening ceremonies. In the previous nine years, the IPL has had one mega opening ceremony, which is the indication that the tournament has officially kicked off. During the IPL ceremony in Hyderabad, four legends of Indian cricket – Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag were felicitated for their outstanding contribution to the game. All of them went around the stadium acknowledging the full house at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Uppal, Hyderabad.
RCB skipper Virat Kohli and SRH captain David Warner were seen shaking hands before the start of the match. Warner came with the IPL trophy that SRH won last year and placed it on the podium during the opening ceremony. Other performers like Shraddha Kapoor, Parineeti Chopra, Tiger Shroff and others will be performing in different cities.
