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The sixteenth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) kicked off in style with a grand opening ceremony at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Right ahead of the IPL 2023 opener between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Gujarat Titans (GT) on Friday (March 31), India's most popular playback singer Arijit Singh arrested everyone with his magical performance in the spectacular opening ceremony which left the crowd enchanted and mesmerised. The crowd, who turned out in huge numbers to witness the IPL 2023's extravaganza, went downright berserk after iconic Dhoni was seen grooving to ‘Deva Deva’ song at the dugout.
Here's the viral video…
Know CSK vs GT's live score updates here
The IPL 2023 opening ceremony started off with Arijit singing 'Ae vatan' from Alia Bhatt starrere 'Raazi'. He also sang popular songs like 'Channa Mereya' from Ranbir Kapoor starrer Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. He also thrilled the crowd with two of the latest songs 'Tere Pyaar Mein' and ‘Ek Baar Hi Kiya' from recently released 'Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar'. Arijit's show was followed by stunning performances by bollywood actors Tamannah Bhatia and Rashmika Mandanna.
Tamannah wore a silver shimmery body suit and danced to electrifying dance numbers, including Tum Tum, Lover, Oo Antava, Tune Mari Entriyan, Chogada. She wore a silver shimmery body suit. It was followed by Rashmika’s performance. She was in traditional attire. She danced to numbers like Saami Saami from Push 1. She finished her performance with SS Rajamouli's film RRR's Oscar-winning, Naatu Naatu.
The speculations are galore that IPL 2023 could be Dhoni's last hurray. Meanwhile CSK will be looking to brush aside the bad memories of IPL 2022, where they finished second last in points table, and start afresh with an intent to go after their fifth IPL title.
Talking about the match, Gujarat Titans skipper Hardik Pandya won the toss and elected to bowl first against CSK. Riding on Ruturaj Gaikwad's brilliant 92 off 50, CSK posted a challenging total of 178/7 on the board. Mohammed Shami, Rashid Khan and Alzarri Joseph snared two wickets apiece for Gujarat Titans.
Gujarat Titans (Playing XI): Wriddhiman Saha(w), Shubman Gill, Kane Williamson, Hardik Pandya(c), Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Shami, Joshua Little, Yash Dayal, Alzarri Joseph.
Subs: B Sai Sudharsan, Jayant Yadav, Mohit Sharma, Abhinav Manohar, KS Bharat
Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes, Ambati Rayudu, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni(w/c), Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Rajvardhan Hangargekar.
Subs: Tushar Deshpande, Subhranshu Senapati, Shaik Rasheed, Ajinkya Rahane, Nishant Sindhu.
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