Chennai: The curtain raised, setting the right beat with a glittering launch by some luminaries of the world of entertainment, led by Bollywood and Indian cinema’s superstar Amitabh Bachchan, its now time to set the ball rolling in the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) fifth edition at the historic Chepauk- M A Chidambaram stadium here on Wednesday.
Defending champions Chennai Super Kings embark on their endeavour of making it a hat-trick of titles taking on what could be safely termed as their archrivals Mumbai Indians who look the best side to match them in spite of their different composition led by offie Harbajan Singh, himself hoping to stage a come back into Team india, shining in this IPL. The wily sardar himself admitted to this at the curtain raiser press conferene.
The Harbhajan-Dhoni battle, in fact, sets the right mood for the kick off of the T20 national league with high stakes cushioning the players with big bucks.
Having won back-to-back IPL titles, there is a chance for Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his ‘Men in Yellow’ to complete a hat-trick but ‘Captain Cool’ doesn’t want to think too far ahead considering it’s a 47-day tournament.
“We don’t think about result. It is a longish tournament close to 60 days. So targeting a result right from the start will be very difficult. Yes, there is pressure but a bit of it is always good,”Dhoni said. (Agencies)