The inaugural match of the Indian Premier League between Bangalore and Kolkata was so horribly one-sided that even the extensive propaganda machine at the IPL will be hard pressed to hide the imbalance.

From the moment Brendan McCullum pulled his first boundary over mid-wicket till he took the final catch on the same fence, Kolkata gave Bangalore a cricketing lesson of embarrassing proportions.

McCullum’s innings was special and is the highest individual score recorded in a domestic T20 to date. His 158 not out was scored from 73 balls and included 10 fours and 13 towering sixes. It was truly a stunning effort on a pitch that had its fair share of movement and carry. When you consider that Ponting’s 20 was the next highest score you may begin to understand the sheer majesty of the Kiwi’s dominance.

No bowler was spared the ruthless assault. International recruits Kallis, Noffke and White fared no better than locals Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Kahan and spinner Joshi. All were treated with disdain by McCullum and his innings was directly from the Adam Gilchrist textbook on opening a limited over innings. If it is full, hit hard through the line and if it is short, smash it over the legside boundary.

Rahul Dravid’s captaincy was bereft of motivation and idea. He changed his bowlers often but it seemed that there was no plans for the batsman. The bowlers appeared to just fling it down and hope for the best and the obvious result was Kolkata reaching 222/3 after their allotted 20.

With a top four that included plodders like Dravid, Jaffer and Kallis as well as the inexperienced under 19 skipper Kohli, Bangalore were never going to chase down a run-rate in excess of eleven an over.

All too predictably they collapsed and at the five over mark were 24/5 after Ishant Sharma and Ashok Dinda bowled a tight and lively opening spell. Disappointingly, after the fielding restrictions were lifted, the match was already in the bag. It lost impetus and the players went through the motions until Bangalore limply succumbed for 82 with still a quarter of an innings remaining.

Curiously, the home crowd didn’t seem to care. If there was passion within the terraces it was for drinking and partying with friends and not for supporting, or should I say, lamenting their team’s performance.

Gangaly’s Kolkata team will be happy with the win but they weren’t tested at any stage. It was a complete rout from start to finish. They played with energy and verve and Sourav showed again that he has natural ability as a cricketing skipper.

On the other hand, Dravid’s Bangalore look out of their depth and if this was a serious competition and not a marketing exercise questions would already be surfacing about the wisdom of having a defensive top-order and out of touch bowlers like Zaheer Khan and Cam White.

To be fair it is only early days in the tournament but from a neutral’s perspectective last night’s match as a contest failed to live up to its promise. Fortunately, both McCullum and Ishant Sharma showed their class and their performances made the sacrifice of precious sleep somewhat worthwhile.

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