Top 5 Greatest Finals of all Time in IPL History
Follow Us
The festival of Cricket in India, the Indian Premier League (IPL) is about to give its winner for the season 2020. Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals will fight for the coveted Dream11 IPL 2020 trophy at the Dubai International Stadium.
Till the 13th edition of the tournament, Mumbai Indians have played the most finals with 5 in total. They also won the tournament the highest number of times with four trophies in their cabinet. Rohit Sharma helped MI in achieving glory all the four times in 2013, 2015,2017, and 2019. Delhi Capitals on the other hand will be playing their first-ever final in the history of the tournament.
The finals of IPL is one of the most-watched matches in the country. The two finalists having fought hard for a place in the finals, clash for the last time in the tournament to win the tournament. The Indian Premier League is known for giving entertaining and nail-biting finish to the tournament. Some of the finals even though being low-scoring have provided a final ball finish.
Here we take a look at the 5 greatest finals played in the 12 years since the inception of the IPL.
5. Rajasthan Royals vs Chennai Super Kings (2008)
The opening edition of IPL will always be remembered as the ‘Rajasthan Royal’s season’ for the remarkable run under the leadership of Shane Warne.
Batting first Chennai made 163 runs for the loss of 5 wickets. For CSK Suresh Raina and Parthiv Patel made 43 and 38 runs respectively while Yusuf Pathan took 3 wickets.
For RR Yusuf Pathan made 56 runs in 38 balls. However, RR lost all their batsmen till the 19th over. Skipper Shane Warne alongside Sohail Tanvir completed the run chase on the last ball of the match and lifted the maiden IPL trophy.
This is the only IPL title for RR while CSK won three titles in the coming years. Pathan was the man of the match in the final for his all-round performance.
4. Chennai Super Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders (2012)
Chennai playing at their home ground posted 190 runs in the finals of IPL season 5. Suresh Raine scored a quickfire 78 runs for CSK with Mike Hussey also scoring a half-century.
Manvinder Bisla and Jaques Kallis took the game away from CSK with a 139 run stand for the third wicket. Bisla got out after making 89 runs while Kallis was out for 69. Manoj Tiwari led the team to the final over and finished the game with a boundary.
This was the maiden IPL title for Kolkata Knight Riders and a second loss in an IPL final for MS Dhoni led Chennai Super Kings.
3. Mumbai Indians vs Rising Pune Supergiants (2017)
Rising Pune Supergiants led by Steven Smith were in a comfortable position after reducing Mumbai Indians to just 129 runs. This was the lowest total in the IPL finals. Jaydev Unadkat and Adam Zampa helped RPS by taking two wickets each.
However, MI never gave up the fight even though a solid partnership was made by Ajinkya Rahane and Steven Smith. The match went into the final over of the match with RPS requiring 11 runs to win their maiden IPL title. Mitchell Johnson took 3 wickets in the last over and dismissed the RPS skipper Steven Smith. 4 runs were required on the final ball but Pune could make two runs and lost the match by 1 run.
In this game, the lowest target was defended in an IPL final and the the two sides were separated by just one run in the end.
2. Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings (2019)
MI and CSK the two best teams in IPL played their third final together at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket stadium in 2019. Mumbai had lost to CSK three times earlier in the tournament.
They turned things around and lifted the IPL trophy for the fourth time in history. Mumbai had made a modest 148/8 batting first with Krunal Pandya top-scoring the MI batting with 41 runs. Shane Watson for CSK played a fine 80 run knock and it looked like CSK would repeat the 2018 IPL feat.
But Jasprit Bumrah didn’t let it happen with his good penultimate over. With just 9 runs needed in the final over Malinga took responsibility for bowling the last over. Just 2 runs were required on the last bowl of the game, and Malinga cleaned Shardul Thakur LBW as Mumbai defeated CSK by a single run.
1. Kolkata Knight Riders vs Kings XI Punjab (2014)
Kolkata Knight Riders led by Gautam Gambhir defeated league leaders Kings XI Punjab as they chased down 200 runs target. Wriddhiman Saha scored his maiden IPL ton in the first innings for KXIP who made 199/5.
For KKR it was Manish Pandey who rescued then with his 94 runs innings. However, at one stage it looked like KXIP would win their maiden IPL after the collapse of KKR batting. It was Piyush Chawla and Sunil Narine who finished the incredible last three overs against the likes of Mitchell Johnson and Parvinder Awana.
This score remains the highest runs chased in an IPL final till date. It was the second triumph for KKR in IPL history.
Also Read | List of Purple Cap winners in each IPL season from 2008 to 2019
Stay Updated!
Rishabh Tripathi
(170 Articles Published)