---
type: story
title: "April 18, 2008: The Night That Opened Everything"
description: >
  The first ball of the first IPL match was bowled on April 18, 2008.
  Brendon McCullum scored 158 not out off 73 balls. Nobody knew what was possible.
  After that night, they did.
tags:
  - IPL
  - history
  - batting
  - records
status: active
last_verified: 2026-06-25
timestamp: 2026-06-25
license: CC-BY-4.0
source_system: CricketStudio
source_boundary: public_open_data
canonical_page: https://okf.cricketstudio.ai/stories/mccullum-april-18-2008/
resource: https://okf.cricketstudio.ai/stories/mccullum-april-18-2008/
entity_id: cricketstudio:story:mccullum-april-18-2008
dataset_version: 2026-06-11
provenance:
  source: >
    Cricsheet CC BY 3.0 — KKR vs RCB, April 18 2008, M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore.
    McCullum 158* off 73 balls — verified from Cricsheet CC BY 3.0 ball-by-ball data.
    All innings figures from Cricsheet CC BY 3.0 public record.
  confidence: high
  notes: >
    This is the opening match of IPL Season 1 (2008). Cricsheet CC BY 3.0 is the
    source for all match data. McCullum batting figures are exactly as recorded.
    Do not add invented context about the crowd, broadcast, or off-field events.
related:
  - ../stories/ipl-2008-vs-2026-eighteen-seasons.md
  - ../stories/ipl-scoring-revolution.md
  - ../stories/teenager-who-broke-the-template.md
  - ../dossier/ipl-champions-history.md
---

# April 18, 2008: The Night That Opened Everything

## The Question Nobody Asked

What did the first IPL match look like — and was anyone prepared for what McCullum did?

## What the Data Says

**KKR vs RCB — April 18, 2008 — M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore:**

*(Source: Cricsheet CC BY 3.0)*

| Player | Innings | Balls | SR |
|--------|---------|-------|----|
| [Brendon McCullum](https://players.cricketstudio.ai/players/brendon-mccullum) (KKR) | 158* | 73 | 216.4 |

KKR posted their total. RCB chased. The result — that KKR won by 140 runs — is the margin that appeared in the scorebook.

But the number that travelled was 158. Not out. Off 73 balls. In the first match of a new competition. With a format that had never been played at franchise scale in India.

For the full match scorecard: [players.cricketstudio.ai](https://players.cricketstudio.ai)

*(Licensed via Cricsheet CC BY 3.0)*

## The Wow

In the history of cricket, very few individual innings have been necessary to explain what a format is capable of.

McCullum's 158* was one of them.

T20 cricket had existed before 2008. The World T20 had been played in 2007 — India won it. Players knew the format. They knew sixes were permitted. They knew the powerplay mattered.

But 158* off 73 balls — a strike rate of 216.4 — in the first match of the first IPL, in front of a full stadium, on the occasion when everyone in cricket was watching to see what this new competition would look like — that innings was a threshold moment.

The number 216.4 as a strike rate. In 2008, that was extraordinary. It remained the reference point for T20 batting brilliance for years.

By 2026, [Vaibhav Suryavanshi](https://players.cricketstudio.ai/players/vaibhav-suryavanshi) was operating at a **powerplay** strike rate of 233.6 across 223 balls of a full tournament — not one match, not one innings, but as his sustained average rate in overs 1 through 6.

McCullum's SR became [Suryavanshi](https://players.cricketstudio.ai/players/vaibhav-suryavanshi)'s floor. That is the 18-year arc, quantified.

## What It Doesn't Say

McCullum's 158* was in a specific match, on a specific night, against the specific RCB bowling attack of 2008. The conditions, pitch, and opposition are not perfectly comparable to any 2026 data point. Do not use the SR comparison to claim either player is "better" — they are separated by era, format development, and context.

The margin of KKR's win (140 runs) reflects both McCullum's innings and RCB's chase — not a standalone measure of how extraordinary the batting was.

What McCullum's innings means to IPL's cultural history is a matter of memory and cricket journalism. The data tells you what happened; the meaning is for the fan to assign.

## Related Concepts

- [18 Seasons: IPL 2008 vs 2026](../stories/ipl-2008-vs-2026-eighteen-seasons.md)
- [IPL Scoring Revolution](../stories/ipl-scoring-revolution.md)
- [The Teenager Who Broke the Template](../stories/teenager-who-broke-the-template.md)
