In Pictures: Reliving the night the IPL was born

The opening ceremony of the inaugural IPL, along with the blitzkrieg from Brendon McCullum, ensured that April 18, 2008 would remain a significant signpost in cricketing history.

There were laser lights, the famous cheer-leader troupe Washington Redskins performed their gig but when the first-ever IPL match commenced, all that glitz paled in front of Brendon McCullum’s frenetic 73-ball unbeaten 158.

Rahul Dravid of the Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sourav Ganguly of the Kolkata Knight Riders led their sides out at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium for the opening match of the multimillion-dollar Indian Premier League. Ahead of the encounter, the captains of the eight franchises walked out to sign the Spirit of Cricket pledge.

McCullum’s innings — a mix of powerful forearms used to good effect and feet that were planted firm on the accelerator – did make acclaimed greats such as skipper Sourav Ganguly and Ricky Ponting mere bystanders.

RCB never really got going in its reply, and found itself folding for a paltry 82 inside 16 overs. Here, Virat Kohli is clean bowled by Ashoke Dinda, as KKR - who posted 222 for three in 20 overs - romped home by 140 runs.

The three hours of high-octane batting and bowling, was accompanied by dancers and a booming Bollywood soundtrack. Shah Rukh Khan, the owner of Kolkata Knight Riders, was the biggest attraction in the stands, along with Shilpa Shetty, co-owner of the Rajasthan Royals.

1 / 0

There were laser lights, the famous cheer-leader troupe Washington Redskins performed their gig but when the first-ever IPL match commenced, all that glitz paled in front of Brendon McCullum’s frenetic 73-ball unbeaten 158.