SRK: We are the winners

For there lay the risk of his costliest production going kaput. For the first 29 overs of what was a 32-over match, the Kolkata Knight Riders boss sat largely motionless in his earmarked Club House stand, staring at what could have been his biggest flop till date.

But with the Royal Challengers needing 39 off three overs and Ishant Sharma bowling a Scrooge-like 14th, King Khan stirred to life. Sensing a likely victory, he climbed on his chair, turned his back to the ground and began egging the crowd on.

At the finish, he hugged friend Arjun Rampal and then rushed cheerfully onto the ground for the prize ceremony.

Earlier, when he arrived at his hotel, Shah Rukh had sounded anxious. “We are down but not out. Obviously, one cannot deny that we lost four matches on the trot. We have to keep our morale up, I guess,” King Khan had said.

But the man himself found it difficult to keep his morale high. A complete contrast to his last two outings at Eden, he hardly got up to cheer his team till Bangalore’s 14th over.

Not when Brad Hodge hit the first boundary. Not when Sourav Ganguly walked out to bat. Not when David Hussey hit the first six. The second… the third… not when Deewangi deewangi played. Not when Aaj ki raat played.

The only times he shuffled in his seat was when the Knight Riders walked back to the pavilion.

He did try his lucky charms. The Khan 12 T-shirt was back. Rampal and Mehr Jessia Rampal were flown in from Mumbai, the two cheering pals who were by his side in the first two victories. Wife Gauri and children Aryan and Suhana were back, too. Suhana sat on SRK’s lap just like the first Eden match against the Deccan Chargers.

Only this time, daddy wasn’t doing his Dard-e-disco. Everyone from Lalit Modi to Sajid Khan wanted SRK, who was smoking non-stop, to join in the boundaries-and-wickets celebrations but to no avail.

Naturally, the lower right tier of the Club House, despite a better turnout compared with Match Two, went quite thanda. Rahul Bose, Riya Sen, Calcutta boy but Kings XI Punjab co-owner Karan Paul, Tollywood actors Jeet, Jisshu, Koel, Rituparna were all there but all the King’s men struggled without their King.

Making a whole lot more noise were the Royal Challengers supporters. For the first time, an opposition team had real support at the Eden thanks to Vijay Mallya’s mammoth marketing blitz.

At the left lower tier of the Club House, Mallya’s men reserved over 200 seats with brand ambassador Katrina Kaif cheering from Row One. Team SRK had blocked just about 50 seats.

Pratim D. Gupta, The Telegraph India