IPL first match records: First ball, First wicket & All the ‘Firsts’ you need to know

The 18th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) commences on Saturday, March 22, with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) taking on Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Incidentally, these two teams had locked horns in the first-ever match in the IPL in its inaugural season in 2008.

CricTracker looks back at all the firsts that cricket enthusiasts need to know about the opening encounter in the cash-rich league which was held almost 17 years ago.

First Ball:

Rahul Dravid won the toss for RCB and he decided to bowl first. Uttar Pradesh seamer Praveen Kumar bowled the first ball in IPL history to KKR captain Sourav Ganguly. The ball pitched on the stumps and swung back in towards the pads of the southpaw, who failed to get his bat onto the ball. The ball rolled off the thigh pad to square leg and Brendon McCullum raced to the non-striker's end to complete a quick single.

First Four:

After Praveen bowled a tidy first over, conceding just three runs, Zaheer Khan was introduced into the attack in the second. McCullum missed a cut shot off the first delivery from the left-arm seamer. However, he thumped the second ball over mid-wicket to record the first boundary in the IPL.

First Six:

McCullum hit the following delivery almost in the same region to register back-to-back boundaries. The New Zealand wicketkeeper-batter cleared the ropes off the fourth delivery of the over. McCullum took a couple of steps towards the off-side and tried to chip Zaheer over mid-on. However, the delivery bowled at 125.8 kph took a thick outside-edge and sailed over third man for the first six in the IPL.

First Wicket:

KKR raced to 60/0 at the end of the first five overs as McCullum was taking the RCB bowlers to the cleaners. Zaheer was brought back into the attack to bowl the final over of the powerplay. He dismissed Ganguly off the second delivery. Zaheer bowled a beautiful out-swinger that took the outside-edge after Ganguly attempted to place it through the on-side. Jacques Kallis, who was stationed at wide slip, took the catch to complete the first dismissal in IPL history.

First Fifty:

McCullum slammed the first half-century in IPL history when he reached the milestone in the ninth over. The right-handed batter took just 32 balls to get to the 50-run mark. He hit Kallis for a couple of runs towards backward square leg to reach his fifty.

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First Century:

McCullum accelarated the scoring rate after reaching his half-century. He took just 53 balls to bring up the maiden century in the IPL. McCullum got to the landmark in the 16th over by picking up a couple of runs off Ashley Noffke.

First Win:

KKR scored a staggering 222/3 in their 20 overs on the back of McCullum's blistering 158 not out off 73 balls. It was sheer dominance from the Kiwi cricketer as the second-highest run-scorer in the innings was Ricky Ponting, who made a run-a-ball 20.

Chasing the mammoth target, RCB were bowled out for just 82 in 15.1 overs. Ajit Agarkar was the pick of the bowlers for KKR as he finished with figures of 3/25 in four overs. Meanwhile, Ashok Dinda and Sourav chipped in with two wickets apiece. The away side won by a massive margin of 140 runs.

First Player of the Match Award Winner

McCullum was fittingly adjudged Player of the Match after his heroics with the bat set the stage ablaze. The Dunedin-born hit 10 fours and 13 sixes in his match-winning innings.