Brendon McCullum en route to his unbeaten 158 in Bangalore on Friday. Picture by Santosh Ghosh

Bangalore: Brendon McCullum’s unbeaten century coupled with decimating fast bowling helped Kolkata Knight Riders inflict a humiliating 140-run defeat on Bangalore Royal Challengers in the opening match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) Friday.

Put in to bat, the Calcutta team scored a massive 222 for three and then skittled out their opponents for 82 to begin their campaign in the Twenty20 extravaganza in style. McCullum produced a scintillating 73-ball knock of 158, which happens to be the highest individual total in Twenty20 games.

The New Zealand wicket-keeper batsman single-handedly took Knight Riders past 200-run mark, punishing all the bowlers mercilessly before a packed house.

McCullum’s innings was studded with 13 sixes and 10 fours as he scorched the Chinnaswamy Stadium with his amazing stroke-play.

The Bangalore team’s run chase was far from ideal as skipper Rahul Dravid (two) was the first to depart when teen sensation Ishant Sharma knocked over his stumps in the second over of the innings.

The Bangalore top-order then buckled under pressure.

Jacques Kallis hit the first boundary of their innings off Ajit Agarkar in the fifth over but only to be dismissed on the next ball, handing a simple catch at mid-on to Murali Kartik. No top-order batsman from the Vijay Mallya-owned team could reach the double-digit mark against a disciplined fast bowling.

Agarkar was the pick of the bowler as he accounted for three batsmen giving away 25 runs in his quota of four overs.

Batsmen came and went in hurry as the required run-rate soon soared to 20 runs per over.

Ricky Ponting and Ashok Dinda celebrate the fall of a wicket in Bangalore on Friday. Picture by Santosh Ghosh

Praveen Kumar (18), batting at number 10, was the first batsman from the hosts side to reach the double digit mark when he lofted Laxmi Ratan Shukla for a huge six over long-on.

The highest contribution in Bangalore’s run chase came from 19 extras.

Skipper Sourav Ganguly and Ashok Dinda, who made his Twenty20 debut, chipped in with two wickets each.

Earlier, McCullum went berserk right from the word go as he hit Zaheer Khan for 18 runs in the second over of the innings after being put in to bat by hosts skipper Rahul Dravid.

The New Zealander then hit a six off Ashley Noffke to bring up the 50 for Knight Riders in just four overs.

Zaheer drew the first blood for the hosts when he had Sourav (10) caught by South African Kallis in the slip cordon.

But only after Sourav and McCullum had put on 61 runs for the first wicket to lay a strong foundation for a big total.