Yes, things dint work out for RC today but this was a great day for me! I was excited about the RC match. The thought about going to Eden gardens to cheer for RC actually pumped my blood ten times faster! And I just couldnt wait........ to meet the Kolkata Mighty 14!!!

Kolkata Mighty 14 winners were asked to meet up at the gates of ITC where the team was hosted at about 11. Everybody met for the 1st time but they all had one thing in common - they loved RC! So it wasn't really difficult to break the ice. Next, we received a pleasant visit from Aneesh. After shaking hands with each one personally, Aneesh acted as the ITC tour guide and we were shown around the magnificent ITC, Kolkata. While on our short trek around the hotel, we spotted - Ajeet Agarkar, Murli Kartik and Mark Boucher among others...



All of us then went to a nearby park where I saw the Mighty 14 in action (pre-match preparations). Strategies were discussed, slogans were made and different cheer formations were discussed over coffee...



With all plans made, the Mighty 14 were taken back to the ITC hotel. After about half an hour (no one complained because they saw Katrina Kaif, SRK's car and Dada......) at about 1.45 the Mighty 14 were taken outside a room where the RC players team meeting was in progress. As that ended, we all caught a glimpse of the entire RC team! Yesss we saw Rahul Dravid, up and close... Jumbo looking as confident as ever and Ray Jennings as calm as ever! Next was the moment that MIGHTY 14 had been waiting for! Manish Pandye and Dale Steyn handed the winners their jerseys just before the RC team headed to the stadium. We all took a group picture and our motivation soaring high we went out to the stadium together cheering flocking together in red and gold, proud to be a ROYAL CHALLENGER.

In stadium The mighty 14 were amazing and they would. We sat among the purples just the 15 reds! And from the first ball to the last one of the match we cheereddddddd. RC FANATIC FANS! printed on the back of the 14 jerseys made its display everytime a 4 or 6 was hit...... Eden being Eden the support for KKR was unmatched! But Id especially like to thank each one of MIGHTY 14 to stand tall when Kallis hit the 6 or when they danced like crazy monkeys when the 1st KKR wicket fell or even when they applauded gracefully when dada hit a 4.



And all said and done - they arnt just MIGHTY 14 winners from Kolkata anymore. To me they are - Arnab, Jagdish, Santosh, Gourav, Saourav, Debiprasad, Sumit, Sukrit, Rohit, Sovechcha, Sanjay, Arihant, Sam and Saurabh! The 14 people who I have seen among hundreds of KKR supporters cheering wildly and under all kinds of pressure to keep our men in red motivated!

Today we ran an impromptu contest, only on Facebook, two hours before the match started - Predict the playing 11, the first one to get it right wins a jersey! Open only to fans based in India this time around.

It was fun, didn't expect such an overwhelming response!! 46 fans submitted entries either on Facebook or by emailing .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). And ONLY ONE got it right! Most of you fans thought Vinay Kumar and Abhimanyu Mithun would be part of today's 11. Goswami was the added spice of the match. Only 2 people mentioned him.

And the winner, is, Nirmit Shetty!

Congrats! Email your address, phone number and jersey size to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), will send your prize over.

Stay tuned for future such contests throughout IPL and throughout the web (not just Facebook next time).

cheers,
nidhi@rcb

A slow start?
Tough field?
Poor captaincy?
Poor line up?
Good competition?

What's YOUR take on what went wrong and how can we do a complete 360 and crush KXIP on Tuesday's match?

In the comments now.

Fanatic Fan SujanSalian already shared his views - What a poor captaincy to begin the campaign? What's yours?

It's 3:55, match is about to start!

Definitely go to the RCB homepage for a FUN live scoreboard and LIVE CHAT - we've put in some Mighty 14 slogans too!

I'm covering it live on Facebook & Twitter - the Chief Blogger and Community Manager Anisha are SMS-ing me live updates from Eden Gardens. (Anisha's with the Mighty 14 - they were handed their jerseys a few hours ago by Royal Challenger Manish Pandey)

The four Chiefs have been covering the lead up to the event, you can catch their latest posts on the homepage as well.

cheers!

HERE'S TO AN RCB WIN!