MI vs RR: Wankhede witnesses special celebrations over 1000th IPL match

The 42nd match of the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL), between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, witnessed special ceremony take place ahead of start of play.

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The MI-RR match, after all, was the 1,000th match in the Indian Premier League — which began its journey in the summer of 2008 and has since established itself not just as the biggest T20 league in the world, but also the most important tournament in the shortest format after the World Cup.

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BCCI secretary Jay Shah was among the dignitaries present at the Wankhede Stadium for the ceremony that was conducted by cricketer-turned-commentator Ravi Shastri and took place between toss and the start of play.

Watch the ceremony here:

A giant banner displaying the number ‘1000’ was positioned on the field of play to commemorate the journey that began with the Kolkata Knight Riders vs Royal Challengers Bangalore match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on 18 April, 2008.

MI skipper Rohit Sharma, who also happened to be celebrating his 36th birthday, and RR counterpart Sanju Samson received mementos from Shah as well as from BCCI treasurer Ashish Shelar and joint-secretary Devajit Saikia. Both teams then sung the Indian national anthem, something that’s not witnessed too often in the IPL, before the start of play.

Rajasthan Royals won the toss and captain Samson decided to bat. RR currently are second on the IPL points table and can dislodge defending champions Gujarat Titans from the top with a victory.

MI, on the other hand, are ninth with three wins and four defeats and a victory over Rajasthan could potentially take them past Royal Challengers Bangalore to the sixth spot, depending on the Net Run Rate.

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