It’s already that time of the year, time for arguably the most exciting cricket league in the world to kick off another season. In fact, The Indian Premier League (IPL) has just started, and it was a beginning worthy of the league’s reputation.

IPL entered its 14th season this Friday (April 9th) and it will reach its final at the very end of May, on May 30th, to be exact. Once more cricket enthusiasts (and hard core fans) will watch eight teams battle it out in 60 games throughout the season. Matches will be held in six different cities, but with no audience, since Covid 19 still shows no signs of slowing down.

There is a possibility (or at least a hope) that the doors of stadiums will open at some point, but for now the organizers are relying on so-called isolation bubbles for keeping the pandemic at bay. Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi and Kolkata will be the hosts for the matches, with the addition of Chennai where five time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) have already faced Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the first match of the season.

And if we are going to judge the season by its first match: it’s going to be one hell of a ride. RCB, often mockingly called “the underachievers”, finally got their big win, with a last ball to remember. Sharma and Kohli went head to head, but at the end it was AB de Villiers and Harshah Patel who took most of the glory, pulling RCB out of the gutter and pushing MI to a loss, continuing their tradition of a weak first game of a season.

This was the fiery christening we needed after a very slow year and a half in this new pandemic world of sports. It gave us hope we’ll watch some quality cricket in the upcoming weeks, and we’ll do it every single day. You can find a full match schedule here, but also be sure to check back with us so we can keep track and make predictions together.