Hurry up, IPL 6 tickets are getting sold out online!

BANGALORE, INDIA: With every passing year, the heady mix of 'cricketainment' that it has come to be known for, the Indian Premier League (IPL) is just getting bigger and better.

The sixth season of the cricketing extravaganza is less than a week away, with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Delhi Daredevils (DD) gearing up to face off in the first Twenty20 (T20) encounter of IPL 6. All set to be officially launched at the IPL Opening Nite 2013 - Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata on April 2 , 7 pm onwards - the tournament will kick off with the KKR vs DD match on April 3 by 8 pm.

And who would not want to be a part of the live action at the venue itself? It, however, need not mean that you have to snake your arduous way through to the ticketing counter at a stadium, just to find it getting shut, with a 'Sold Out' notice smiling at your face.

Be it the Opening Nite or any matches of IPL 6, you can get the tickets booked online. The tickets for the inaugural ceremony starts from Rs. 300 and are available on TicketGenie, a ticketing portal, which also sells the tickets for all home games of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and KKR.

There is, however, a one-stop platform to get all your tickets booked - the official IPL website, IPLT20.com. Along with the schedule of every match, it has a 'Buy Tickets' button, clicking which you would be redirected to the respective website that sells tickets.

But for the home games of RCB, KKR and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), you might as well buy tickets for all other matches on BookMyShow.com, which holds the rights to sell tickets for the remaining six IPL teams - Mumbai Indians (MI), Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), Rajasthan Royals (RR), Pune Warriors India (PWI), DD and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).

The company, according to BookMyShow founder and CEO Ashish Hemrajani, would be managing 60 per cent of the total ticketing inventory for this season. "We are associated with six IPL teams this season, managing more than 15 lakh tickets for them," he said in a statement.

As to how much the trend of booking IPL tickets online has evolved over the years, Hemrajani added, "Even low Internet penetration markets have emerged with 75 per cent of tickets sold online last season, showcasing a 35 per cent growth in online sales since its inception."

Meanwhile, for the opening match between KKR and DD at Eden Gardens, Kolkata (April 3, 8 pm), as well as for other home games of KKR, you can get tickets from TicketGenie. Most of the tickets for this match are sold out and currently, tickets for the Nokia Pavilion (C Block) are the cheapest available at Rs. 1,500.

For the high-profile RCB vs MI match at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on April 4, Bagpiper Special View C tickets are of the lowest available denominations, priced at Rs. 825. RCB home game tickets can be purchased here.

Next up on April 5 is the SRH vs PWI duel at Rajiv Gandhi Cricket Stadium, Hyderabad, in which North Pavilion Terrace tickets are the lowest priced at Rs. 250. And for CSK vs MI at the Chidambaram Stadium on April 6 (apart from other CSK home games), you can log on to CSK's official website. At Rs. 800, you can get the tickets for I Lower (KingsClub) and it goes up to Rs. 6,000 for the Hospitality Box.

IPL 6 features nine T20 teams, each with four foreign playing members, starts from April 3 and runs till May 26.

Where are you going to watch the matches known for their nail-biting finishes?