Well, that was easy for the Knight Riders. With so many runs on the board, Ganguly and his bowlers were able to attack, and it worked for them. A win by 140 runs is a very nice start to the season.

Interestingly both Dravid and Ganguly said after the game that the wicket was not that easy to bat on, which makes McCullum’s innings even more impressive.

It wasn’t a good night for the Bangalore side, and Vijay Mallya, who also co-owns the Force India Formula 1 team, will expect a better performance from his side in the future. Unfortunately their next match is in Mumbai against Sachin Tendulkar’s side. They will soon be strengthened by the arrival of Shiv Chanderpaul – the West Indies and Sri Lankan players had an ODI series to finish before they could head out to India – but I’m still a bit concerned about the make-up of their side. If I were Dravid, I’d open the batting with Cameron White.

As for the Knight Riders, they look real contenders for the title. And they have Chris Gayle due to join them soon. The thought of McCullum and Gayle opening the batting together is mind-blowing. I suspect that the Prince of Kolkata, his team and his Bollywood backers are all off to celebrate with the aid of some of their defeated rival’s product.

Tomorrow there are two games. Overnight Preity Zinta’s Punjab side, spearheaded by Yuvraj Singh and Brett Lee, takes on the Chennai Super Kings. The Super Kings are, on paper, one of the strongest sides in the tournament. Led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni,their side includes Matty Hayden, Stephen Fleming, Mike Hussey, Jacob Oram, Makhaya Ntini and (though probably not for tomorrow) Muttiah Muralitharan. If I’d been picking a team to support on talent alone this is the one I would have chosen.

On show for us over breakfast will be the Delhi Daredevils, featuring Virender Sehwag and Glenn McGrath, against Warnie’s Rajasthan Royals. Maybe I’ll try my hand at some live commentary.

By the way, US readers interested in following the tournament can do so on Dish Network. I think you need the Zee Sports package. And if anyone from Comcast is monitoring the blogosphere, please note that Kevin and I are loyal Comcast subscribers and we could be paying you to watch these games, but you don’t carry them so we are paying Willow TV instead. If our apartment had a wall that faced the right way we’d probably switch to the dish.