Kolkata Knight Riders, powered by a record unbeaten 158 from Brendon McCullum, easily won the inaugural match of the Indian Premier League, whipping Bangalore Royal Challengers by 140 runs at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday night.
The New Zealander amassed his runs off only 73 deliveries as Knight Riders put up a massive 222 after being put in to bat by Royal Challengers' captain Rahul Dravid.
In reply, the home side was dismissed for a meager 82 in 15.1 overs.
Ajit Agarkar was the Kolkata team's most successful bowler, finishing with figures of three for 25 from four overs, as only one batsman -- Praveen Kumar (19) -- got into double figures.
McCullum went berserk right from the start, hitting Indian pacer Zaheer Khan for 18 runs in the second over of the innings. He then hit a towering long-off six off Ashley Noffke to bring up the 50 for the Kolkata team.
The wicket-keeper batsman was difficult to contain and showed no mercy as he hit all the bowlers around the park. His scintillating innings was studded with 13 sixes and 10 boundaries.
In the process he bettered Cameron White's record of 141 not out off 70 ball, for Somerset against Worcestershire in July 2006.
Zaheer drew first blood for the hosts when he had Kolkata skipper Sourav Ganguly (10) caught by South Africa's Jacques Kallis in the slip cordon. But by then the former India captain and McCullum had already put on 61 runs for the first wicket to lay a strong foundation for a big total.
McCullum drove Noffke for a couple to get his century, leading to wild celebrations among team owner Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan and his colleagues, Arjun Rampal and Juhi Chawla.
Kallis and Noffke bore the brunt of McCullum's fury, conceding 42 and 48 runs respectively in their quota of four overs.
