And that’s how the South Superstars rocked

The inaugural match of the Celebrity Cricket League proved to be one that set an impressive example of what one can expect when the matches begin in June this year. Amidst 30,000 strong fans that gathered to watch on in the small town of Vishakapatnam, Team South Superstars took on Team Mumbai Heroes in a first-of-its-kind ‘friendly’ cricket match.

Easily one of the most awaited games in the recent past, on a larger scale, it seemed like the film stars were competing with the World Cup itself by getting themselves on the field at the same time. Aired live on Udaya Movies and Gemini Movies, the two channels, incidentally, also reported highest TRPs. As for the match, it was filmi!

The South Superstars, who batted first, took off on a bad start when the opening batsman, vice captain and actor Sudeep got out with the first ball. Mumbai Heroes’ new-found fast bowler, actor Mahesh Manjrekar, seemed to be quite the threat as he took one wicket after the other.

But the Superstars had more than enough runs on their side, thanks to actors Dhruv, Venkatesh and the new star of the team Adarsh Balakrishnan among others. A huge applause goes out to Telugu star and captain of the team Venkatesh, who was the hero off screen and on the field. Just after he surprised himself with his own fours and sixes, Venkatesh took a quick break, between the overs, to fix a safer helmet in place of his headband. Totally filmi!

With the Superstars scoring 192 for 8 by the end of 20 overs, Team Mumbai Heroes had a lot of catching up to do. The team may have a good set of fielders (except for some of the rare occasions when Aftab Shivdasani and Harman Baweja provided some comic relief by bumping into each other for a catch), but the Superstars turned out to be better fielders.

There was more than enough glamour in the audience boxes too. The South Superstars had a bevy of beauties cheering them on — Shriya Saran, Pooja Gandhi, Priyamani, Ragini Dwivedi, Tapasee, Samantha and Sanjjana.

The Mumbai Heroes had one brand ambassador — the bubbly Genelia D’Souza, who would have been more apt for the south. It was hardly a surprise therefore when actor Manoj Manchu from South Superstars carried her off to the other side before she got herself out of his trap and returned to her own box.

And so when the South Superstars won the match by a whopping 36 runs, the rest of the country that could not watch it live, stayed well informed — thanks to Salman Khan’s regular updates from the place of action on Twitter.