So till  yesterday, the KnightRiders were all about SRK and his antics, but today, at the inaugural match at the Chinnaswami Stadium at Bangalore, one guy from Kolkata KnightRiders team really showed everyone who’s the boss. Brendon McCullum.

The 26 year-old New Zealander was not very well known in this part of the world, but yesterday’s match changed all that. In an chance-less 158 that he scored at faster than 2 runs a ball, McCullum proved that he is a really serious player in the IPL. He smashed 13 sixes and 10 fours, getting well over a 100 of his runs in just boundaries. He really did put on a spectacular show. It seemed that every other ball he faced he smashed away for a boundary. And it didn’t even seem like he was putting any effort into it. All the Royal Challengers’ bowlers got smashed, with many of them going for more than 10 an over.

ShahRukh Khan was among the many Bollywood celebrities at the stadium today, and it was obvious he was thoroughly enjoying the match, cheering every six and four that McCullum was smashing. The only thing that worried me about the KnightRiders’ performance tonight was that no one of the other batsman came any good, with Ponting being the second highest scorer at 20. But they didn’t need to, with McCullum doing all the big hitting. I thought the fielding was also a bit sloppy, with Ponting even dropping a catch that he should really have taken.

The response of the Royal Challengers, on the other hand, was absolutely heartless. Ishant Sharma got Dravid the very first ball of his spell, and everything wen downhill from there. Really really boring, with hardly any sixes coming off the Bangalore team. Only Praveen Kumar got to double digits, everyone else returning back to the pavilion after spending about 10 minutes in the center. Boring Boring. Even the cheerleaders got bored and went off to sleep.

The bowling department of the KnightRiders deserves the compliment, however. They did a really good job, with very little wavering of line and length, and taking wickets regularly. The Royal Challengers didn’t put up much of a challenge.

But all is not lost for the Royal Challengers, as it was only the first game. Also, they’ll get their chance at revenge soon enough. The same two teams will play again on Sunday, but this time in Kolkata.