Kings reign over hearts but fail to conquer

PL: Daler Mehndi enthralls audience, Yuvraj and Dhoni remain crowd favourites

It was the ‘karmyudh’. Kings XI Punjab led by local hero Yuvraj Singh took on MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings and the stadium could hardly contain its excitement.

It had the settings and the flavour of a festival — the dhol, bhangra, cheer-leaders, a star performance by Daler Mehndi and the Bollywood superstar Preity Zinta’s nervous presence. It was the much-anticipated carnival for the Tri-city.

Even though the PCA Stadium was far from being packed to capacity, a group of around 100 dancers did a 15-minute bhangra sequence followed by fluttering flags with the Kings XI Punjab team slogan ‘Live Punjabi’ and ‘Play Punjabi’ written on them.

Then it was Daler Mehndi’s turn to enthrall the audience, singing the Kings XI Punjab’s theme song ‘Panga na lena’ and also few hits from his famous albums.

As the evening progressed, the stadium began to fill. From the cricketing point of view, the match was a spectacle to behold, with 24 sixes and 35 fours hit during the match.

Once the floodlights came on, the crowd went crazy and started whistling and dancing in the aisles. It was a grand cricket party.

Beer mugs were the order of the day. Young girls were going gaga over Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh, while Murali was the favourite among the children. Yuvraj and Dhoni remained the crowd favourites.

Zinta was seen biting her nails out of sheer nervousness while her team chased a tough target of 241 runs.

Yuvraj did manage to lustily hit a couple of blows but he could neither repeat his ‘six-sixers’ feat nor could he win the match for his team. Once his wicket fell, the crowd went silent with disappointment.

Though Sangakkara and Hopes kept the crowd’s hopes up till the end, the target remained tough to achieve. Right after the defeat of Kings XI Punjab, people deserted the stadium.

In the next round, the Kings XI Punjab will play Sachin Tendulkar’s Mumbai Indians on April 25 and most certainly, people will be hoping their favourite son Yuvraj Singh to make a come back.

Wins and losses are part of the game, says Preity The day finally dawned when Preity’s team — Kings XI Punjab — played their first match in IPL and she was all charged up for the D-day. Dressed in a white tee, Preity Zinta had her team’s logo on tees’s back. As Yuvraj Singh walked off to the centre pitch for the toss, Preity closed her eyes and was seen praying with folded hands. To her dismay, Yuvi lost the toss. But she, along with her franchisee and real life partner Ness Wadia, wished luck to Yuvi’s boys when they took to the field. Throughout the match, Priety showed signs of nervousness, excitement, and after the match’s disastrous results, resentment. She, however, said sportingly, “Wins and losses are part of the game, we will come all guns blazing in our next outing.”