IPL 8: Kohli at par with Dhoni and Gambhir, thanks to Anushka

RCB skipper Virat Kohli gestures during a practice session at the Eden Gardens yesterday

Kolkata: With the decibel rising, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir clearly nudged ahead of the other skippers on the popularity stakes. Wait... there was Virat Kohli as well, a close third.


RCB skipper Virat Kohli gestures during a practice session at the Eden Gardens yesterday. Pic/PTI

And if one counted the number of cheers that went up every time the giant screen focussed on him during Anushka Sharma's dance, he would have been at par with 'Captain Cool' and the home team skipper. All this as the skippers signed the 'spirit of the game' pledge.

And, as you would expect, some of the biggest cheers were reserved for former India skipper Sourav Ganguly.

It was soon time to rock on with Farhan Akhtar and sway to the energetic yet mersmerising dancing of Hrithik Roshan.

Not quite a washout
Heavy rains lashed Kolkata for more than an hour-and-a-half to play havoc with hopes of getting the opening ceremony off to a start. But no one was willing to give up.

While the organisers kept promising that the programme would start half-an-hour of the rain relenting, the crowd cheered every little sign of hope.

When the rain stopped, an hour after the scheduled start, mopping up of the huge stage began in earnest.

Then, as the throbbing beat on the high-voltage system was tested, and the myriad lights came alive, everyone knew it would be worth the wait. They were spot on.

Taking the cue from Down Under
As the crowd waited for the rain to relent, excuse the wag who quipped: "If Anushka doesn't get to dance this evening, do we get to curse Kohli?"