IPL History

The maiden season of the IPL tournament was inaugurated on 18 April 2008.The tournament lasted for 43 days. Out of the 59 matches scheduled, only 58 could be played 1 was cancelled due to rain. The final match was played by Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings in DY Patil Stadium, Nerul, and Navi Mumbai. Every team played each other both at home and away in a round-robin system. The top four ranked teams advanced to the knockout stage of semi-finals followed by a final. Rajasthan Royals defeated Chennai Super Kings in a thriller and emerged as the inaugural IPL champions.

The 2009 Indian Premier League season, shortened as IPL 2 or the 2009 IPL, was the second spell of the Indian Premier League. South Africa hosted the tournament and was played between 18 April to 24 May 2009. IPL 2 was the second biggest cricket tournament in the world, after the Cricket World Cup and had an estimated television audience of more than 200 million in India alone. Deccan Chargers defeated Bangalore Royal Challengers in a thriller final and emerged as the 2009 IPL champions.

The 2010 IPL, third season opened in January 2010 with the auction of players. Of the 66 players on offer, only 11 players were sold. In this season, due to the political crisis, Deccan Chargers did not play at their preferred home location of Hyderabad, India. The new centers for the reigning champions for this season were Nagpur, Navi Mumbai and Cuttack. The first semi-final was won by Mumbai Indians who defeated Bangalore Royal Challengers. Chennai Super Kings defeated Deccan Chargers in the second semi-final. The final was played between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings. Chennai Super Kings won by a margin of 22 runs.

IPL 2010 saw the addition of 2 teams i.e. Sahara Pune warriors India and the Kochi tuskers increased the number of franchises from 8 to 10.

In IPL 2010, the Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab had their franchises terminated for breaching ownership rules. The new Kochi franchisee was also served a warning to resolve all their ownership disputes. Two months later both teams were finally allowed to take part in the 2011 edition after a court ruling. 

Chennai Super Kings won their second consecutive title after defeating the Royal Challengers Bangalore by 58 runs in the final.  This was the first time a franchisee won two titles. The top four teams qualified for the 2011 Champions League Twenty20, which the Chennai Super Kings won.