An eyeful of Dravid

What a match and what a night! I can still feel the excitement tingling in my spine. By now it would be safe to say that our journey is on a roll. What a win.

And by gosh it was only after the match when we had all convened at the dugout that the boys told me that we had just defeated last year's champions. Holy Moley! How much cooler can it get? I mean, I still don't understand this concept of winning by runs or wickets, but I am catching up.

Personally this is the first time that I have witnessed a game of cricket, and it was not really that hard to follow. Simple rules: if the ball crosses the boundary along the ground, it¹s a four. If it crosses the ropes without touching the ground, it is a six. If the umpire raises his finger then it is out and the batsman has to return. And just like baseball or basketball or American football, they also have time-outs in the IPL, after 10 overs. The Mischief Gals, I tell you, were totally at home with their pom-poms and groovy moves. This was just baseball 2.0.

I had definitely not thought there would be this kind of a turnaround. From the little that I understood, we could gauge that our start had not been impressive, with all those tense faces in the dugout, but as the game came alive under the floodlights to the roar of 25,000 people, boy did our team pull out all the tricks. We played like royal challengers and the Gals had plenty to time to be mischievous with the fans and dance our heart out as we gained ground over the Rajasthan Royals. It was like this adrenaline rush. We stepped up the tempo, cheering the team at every given occasion. By the time we won the team song was blaring loudly everywhere in the stadium and the atmosphere was electric.

And then there was this fantastic ceremony with lights, lasers, DJ, drummers, and fireworks which lit up the whole of Newlands Cape Town. The IPL had indeed arrived and with a bang. It was an exciting evening with its share of drama and heartbreak. But the Mischief Gals sure did get the crowd into a frenzy. Can't wait to get on the ground again today evening for our next match and watch Rahul Dravid. Boy, he sure is cute!