Salman steals thunder before IPL final gets underway

Mumbai, Jun 1 (UNI) Bollywood star Salman Khan proved to be the show stealer before the real battle between the Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings for the inaugural DLF Indian Premier League Trophy got underway at the D Y Patil stadium here today.

Salman, regaled the crowd while promoting his forthcoming TV show with 24 dancers in tow. The crowds were also kept enchanted with some circus-type performance with four trampoline acrobats, eight German wheels, eight German spinning wheels.

A laser show with 40 giant flames, followed by four para gliders and a fifth stunt man preceded the finale which had 16 dancers, all stunt artistes and a laser show.

However, the real show stealers of the IPL final day were the commentators who were in multi-colour kurta-pyjamas. Sunil Gavaskar, for whom it was the first visit to the stadium was reminded of the Sharjah pitch and stadium in likeness to this stadium.

Gavaskar spent nearly 15 minutes obliging autograph hunters who thrust all kind of paper through the fence. Others in the commentry team were Ravi Shastri, Arun Lal , Aussie Damien Fleming and Rameez Raja.

The closing ceremony had speeches from ICC president David Morgan, BCCI president Sharad Pawar and Lalit Modi. This was followed by folk dances.

Meanwhile, the Chennai team was practicing even while the closing ceremony was on.

There was also Bollywood stuff notably actresses Kim Sharma, Shamita Shetty, Dia Mirza and Sameera Reddy dancing to popular Bollywood chart busters and also to the theme songs of the eight franchise teams to make it a memorable closing ceremony.

UNI GS RKM VC2016