CHENNAI : From the moment Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) captain Shreyas Iyer tossed the coin at 7 pm on a humid Sunday evening at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, the signs were always there.
That it was going to a night of purple at a venue that bleeds yellow for two months every year. That Sunrisers Hyderabad’s (SRH) Pat Cummins had won over a legion of fans with his epic silence celebrations didn’t matter. Neither did the fact that the SRH owners are one of the city’s own and are headquartered a few miles from the venue.
Every time the emcee at the ground asked the fans to pick a team chant, the sound of K… K... R…, K… K... R… overpowered SRH. It was very much evident when Mitchell Starc delivering the ball of the season to clean up Abhishek Sharma. As the evening went on, it only got louder with every wicket, every celebration as SRH were dismissed for 113.
The sights of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, co-owner of KKR, in the stands with DJ blasting out the famous ‘Running with King Khan, bullets rain down like its thunder’ lyrics from Anirudh Ravichander’s title track in Jawan only added to the electric atmosphere.
As Venkatesh Iyer hit the winning runs, KKR dug out was a bundle of emotions. Even the rarely smiling KKR mentor Gautam Gambhir had the widest grin on his face. Shah Rukh did a lap of honour, thanking the fans, who had come out donning purple; who waited till well past midnight to witness what they had waited for a decade. The Knights in purple lifting the IPL trophy.