Watch - BCCI Felicitates The Tokyo Olympic Medal Winners Neeraj Chopra, India Hockey Team And Lovlina Borgohain As IPL 2022 Begins

The start of the IPL 2022 also saw a brilliant gesture by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) as they felicitated the Tokyo Olympics 2020 medal winners from India- Neeraj Chopra, Lovlina Borgohain and members of the Indian men’s hockey team- before the start of the first match of the tournament between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on March 26 in Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

Neeraj, who clinched a gold medal in javelin, received a reward of ₹1 crore from BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah, while other office bearers were also present during the event. Apart from that, Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist boxer Lovlina Borgohain, who was also present at the stadium, received a cash prize of Rs. 25 lakhs.

Indian men’s hockey team skipper Manpreet Singh was present to receive the cash prize from the BCCI on behalf of the Indian men’s hockey team, who won a historic bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics. The men’s team received a cash prize of Rs. 1.25 crores.

Watch – BCCI Felicitates The Tokyo Olympic Medal Winners Neeraj Chopra, India Hockey Team And Lovlina Borgohain As IPL 2022 Begins

A touch of class to celebrate India's #Tokyo2020 medal winners ? ?#TATAIPL pic.twitter.com/nx4oYxBK4C

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 26, 2022

Chennai Super Kings And Kolkata Knight Riders Open The IPL 2022 Edition

The opening match of the IPL 2022 saw last year’s finalists Chennai Super Kings (CSK) And Kolkata Knight Riders (CSK), clashing at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. However, for a change, CSK was captained by Ravindra Jadeja and KKR was led by Shreyas Iyer.

MS Dhoni had stepped down as the captain of the CSK team two days before the IPL 2022 began, while KKR had bought Shreyas Iyer in the IPL 2022 mega auction for INR 12.25 crores and was appointed captain by the team management before the IPL 15 began.

Iyer won the toss and chose to bowl first against CSK. Apart from Iyer, Sam Billings and Ajinkya Rahane made their KKR debut. For Chennai Super Kings, Ravindra Jadeja made his captaincy debut, while Devon Conway, Adam Milne and Shivam Dube made their CSK debuts.

CSK began on a sour note, as Umesh Yadav removed both openers Ruturaj Gaikwad, for a duck and Devon Conway for 3 runs. While Robin Uthappa made 28 and Ambati Rayudu made 5, CSK was in trouble at 61/5 in 11 overs. But then captain Ravindra Jadeja and former captain MS Dhoni put together a neat little partnership to take CSK to a decent little final score.

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