Chennai bats for entertainment before hard cricket

Chennai, Apr 23 (UNI) Often the venue of grim cricketing battles, including the second tied test in the annals of Indian Cricket, the M A Chidambaram Stadium, otherwise known as Chepauk, transformed itself to combine colourful entertainment with a bit of serious cricket hosting the first DLF Indian Premier League(IPL) Match in the State here today.

Chennaiites, often described as the most knowledgeable cricket fans, lapped up every 'morsel'of singing (Hariharan and his team), Chennai Super Kings Team Star Ambassador and Tamil Actor Vijay waving at them and the cheer leaders's show.

As the entertainment began at 1700 hrs, after a while, the Super Kings,owned by the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association President and BCCI Treasurer N Srinivasan and rivals Mumbai Indians, hoping to force their first win in the league rolled up their sleeves.

The seats are getting filled up and a full house seems a reality by the time the match starts at 2000 hrs.

The other Star Ambassador of the Super Kings Team, Actress Nayanthara, was sorely missed by the fans, as it appeared.

Vijay, who sat through the match, pepped up the wildly cheering fans by asking them to root for 'Namma Chennai'' (Our Chennai).

It was truely a great start for the IPL matches in the cricket crazy Chennai.

The only expectation of the fans was their all-time favourite, although playing for the rival team, Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar would be walking out to bat again at one of his favourite venues--the Chepauk and simply blast away.

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