Introduction When people try to explain why Mumbai Indians have been the most successful franchise in IPL history — five titles, the most consistent playoff appearances, the deepest winning culture — they typically mention Rohit Sharma’s captaincy or Jasprit Bumrah’s bowling. The name that should be mentioned first, but often isn’t, is Kieron Pollard. The...
Introduction No story in the IPL carries more emotional weight than Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s wait for the title. They were there from the first season in 2008. They had the biggest stars — Kohli, ABD, Gayle, all three simultaneously for several seasons. They reached three finals (2009, 2011, 2016) and lost all three. They finished...
Introduction Every competition’s first final matters more than any subsequent one, because the first final is where the template is set — where the competition proves to itself and to the world what kind of event it actually is. On June 1, 2008, at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, Rajasthan Royals faced Chennai...
Introduction Hat-tricks in T20 cricket are rare. Hat-tricks by leg-spinners — bowlers whose primary function is to take wickets through deception rather than pace — are rarer still. Two hat-tricks in a single IPL career? Only three bowlers in the competition’s 17-year history have achieved that. On May 3, 2025, Yuzvendra Chahal became one of...
Introduction A tied IPL match — 20 overs each, same score, same wickets lost — goes to a Super Over: one over per team, one batter per innings, and the entire match decided by six deliveries. The concept is simple. The execution is almost indescribably tense. The Super Over is T20 cricket at its most...
Introduction AB de Villiers is the only batsman in cricket history who made T20 cricket look like it was designed specifically for him. His 360-degree hitting — the ability to play any delivery in any direction with equal power — was not a party trick or a showreel highlight. It was his natural batting method,...
Introduction On January 20, 2008, in a Mumbai hotel ballroom, eight franchises sat with paddles and bid sheets and changed cricket’s economy forever. The first IPL auction was not just a sporting event — it was the establishment of an entirely new market for cricketing talent, one that would grow within 17 years into the...
Introduction When the IPL began in 2008, conventional wisdom in T20 cricket said that wrist-spin was a risk — too expensive, too many loose deliveries, too vulnerable to the aggressive batting that the format encouraged. Fourteen seasons later, leg-spinners top the IPL’s all-time wicket charts, command the highest prices at spin-bowling auctions, and are universally...
Introduction Pune Warriors India were one of the two franchises that entered the IPL in 2011, expanding the competition to ten teams. They had big spending, ambitious plans, and a squad that included Yuvraj Singh, Sourav Ganguly, and later Virender Sehwag. They played three seasons, never made the playoffs, accumulated grievances with the BCCI about...
Introduction It is not a coincidence. The fact that Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, and a succession of world-class pace bowlers have come through Mumbai Indians’ system is the product of a specific franchise philosophy about fast bowling that dates back to Lasith Malinga’s arrival in 2009. Mumbai Indians have not been lucky to find great...