Mumbai Indians v Deccan Chargers, IPL, Mumbai

A cover-up operation

Cricinfo staff

April 27, 2008

	The cheerleaders' mini skirts had to be replaced by calf-length leggings (file photo) © www.flickr.com

Nach Balliye
That means dance, my love. Well, it wouldn't be wrong to say cricket has become the better half of Bollywood when it comes to Twenty20. Even before the first ball was delivered the DY Patil Sports stadium was houseful. The 55000 die-hard fans were in well before time. You wouldn't be off the mark to think they had all come to pay their paeans to their demi-god - Sachin Tendulkar. Real picture soon emerged. Even as Tendulkar didn't take the field the crowds were busy elsewhere: dancing, shaking, whitstling to the various Bollywood tunes.

No more indecent proposals
In India there are many rules. But bending a rule is a rule by itself. So as tempers flared amidst soaring mercury around the country on whether cheerleaders should be allowed to be part of the IPL entertainment, the event organisers didn't break a sweat. They just found a way out: to appease the authorities and the traditionalists the cheerleaders were asked to cover-up their legs with the mini skirts being replaced by calf-length leggings. Perhaps a good and safe move for the girls, too, who were getting annoyed and disturbed by lewd remarks from certain sections of the crowd.

(Un) Suitable boy
VVS Laxman for all his charm and modesty seems stranded in the hurried world of Twenty20. If he is yet to find ways to score with the bat, he has constraints while fielding too. Valiantly he positioned himself at cover and was found out when Abhishek Nayar flogged one over-pitched delivery from D Kalyankrishna which the Hyderabad captain was too slow to even bend, forget stopping.

Boss, we wanna fly too...
Even as his team is yet to open their account on the points table, Mukesh Ambani, owner of Mumbai Indians franchise was riding high, rather flying, when he arrived along with his family for the game from his pad in South Mumbai in a chopper. If he could also help his team's fortune soar, too.

Hail Gilly
His ninth six brought him his maiden Twenty20 hundred but Adam Gilchrist mesmerised the thousands of Mumbai fans who were left with no other option but to bow to him and acknowledge his feat.

© Cricinfo

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