Bollywood star Ranbir Kapoor will host a two-hour prelude to the Indian Premier League (IPL) finale. Others joining the celebrations will include Salman Khan, Jacqueline Fernandez, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Sonam Kapoor Ahuja.
“Cricket Finals…Party Toh Banti hai” will be telecast on Star Plus. It will see a melange of performances and fun-filled interactions with celebrities. Additionally, actors Ravi Dubey, Gaurav Sareen, Aakriti Sharma and Deshna Dugad will amplify the entertainment quotient of the finale.
It will be followed by the VIVO IPL 2018 grand finale on Star India Network on May 27, a statement issued by the channel said.
Fans have so far been enjoying commentary in six languages – Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and Kannada.
In an attempt to reach out to more cricket enthusiasts across India, Star Pravah and Asianet Movies will respectively carry a Marathi and Malayalam broadcast for the first time in IPL history.
The Marathi language broadcast will have Madhuri Dixit-Nene and Swwapnil Joshi joining the celebrations.
Star Gold will also join in with the Hindi broadcast for the grand finale.
“The Dugout” on Star Sports Select will continue to cater to core cricket fans. Giving a predictive and prescriptive analysis will be Dean Jones, Scott Styris, Anil Kumble, Kumar Sangakkara, Darren Sammy, Brett Lee and Mike Hesson.
Four teams have already qualified for the playoffs in the ongoing IPL 2018. At the end of the double round-robin system, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) finished on the top of the points table while Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) grabbed the next three respective positions.
The Qualifier 1 will be played on May 22 between the top two positioned teams SRH and CSK at Wankhede Stadium (Mumbai) while the Eliminator will be played on next day between the next two teams KKR and RR at Eden Gardens (Kolkata).
The winner of Qualifier 1 will reach the final while the loser of Qualifier 1 will meet against the winner of Eliminator in the Qualifier 2 at Eden Gardens (Kolkata) on May 25. The winner of Qualifier 2 will finally meet against the winner of Qualifier 1 in the final of IPL 2018 at Wankhede Stadium (Mumbai) on May 27.
