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The (IPL) is a league for championship in . It was initiated by Lalit Modi, who served as the league's first Chairman and Commissioner, and the Board of Control for (BCCI), headquartered in ,[1][2] and is supervised by BCCI Vice President Rajeev Shukla,[3] who serves as the league's Chairman and Commissioner. It is currently contested by nine teams, consisting of players from around the cricketing world. It was started after an altercation between the BCCI and the .[4]

In 2010, IPL became the first sporting event ever to be broadcast live on YouTube. [5] Its brand value is estimated to be around US$2.99 billion in fifth season.[6] However, the league has been the subject of several controversies where allegations of cricket betting,money laundering and spot fixing were witnessed.[7][8]

The Premier League is generally considered to be the world's showcase for Twenty20 (T20) cricket, which is the shortest type of cricket. A T20 match only has 20 overs per inning. Top Indian and international players take part in IPL, contributing to what is the world's "richest cricket tournament".[9]

In 2012 the naming rights for the series was awarded to Pepsi.[10] Two eligible bids were received, with Pepsi winning Airtel with a bid of 396.8 crores.[11

2013 –IPL SEASON

Pepsi replaced DLF as the title sponsor. Nine teams are participating in the sixth season. The sixth season opened on 3 April 2013 with the player auction broadcast on Sony Six. 108 players were on offer but only 37 players were sold for US$ 11.87 million. The Australian all rounder was the only million dollar buy. The franchise having been terminated by the IPL governing council, their spot was taken by the Sunrisers . The new team retains most of the players from the Deccan Chargers team. The tournament is scheduled to from 3 April to 26 May 2013 with and hosting the playoffs. Kolkata'sEden Gardens will host the first match as well as the final as they were the champions of the 2012 season. Due to protests in the state of , Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalitha has requested the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh not to allow any Sri Lankan players, umpires or any other support staff to play in IPL matches to be held in .

Controversy hit IPL again with 3 players(Chandila, Chavan and Sreesanth)arrested by the Mumbai police on May 16 on charges of spot-fixing.Vindu Dara Singh was also arrested on charges of spot-fixing and alleged links to bookies during IPL 6.

The , the , and the were the four teams in the league stage to qualify for the playoffs.

On 21 May 2013, the Chennai Super Kings defeated the Mumbai Indians in the first qualifier in Delhi by 48 runs and became the first team through to the finals .[22] On the same day, Pune franchisee owner Sahara Group (owner of Pune India) decided to pull out of IPL. This decision was taken after Sahara failed to pay IPL dues.

On 22 May 2013, the Rajasthan Royals defeated the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the eliminator in Delhi by 4 .[23]

On 24 May 2013, Mumbai Indians defeated Rajasthan Royals in the second qualifier and faced Chennai Super Kings in the final.

On 26 May 2013, Mumbai Indians defeated Chennai Super Kings by 23 runs for their first title win. Mahendra Singh Dhoni of Chennai Super Kings scored an unbeaten 63 of 45 balls Team performances

Team 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Chennai Super Kings R 4th W W R R

Delhi Daredevils 3rd 3rd GS GS 3rd GS

Kings XI Punjab 4th GS GS GS GS GS

Kolkata Knight Riders GS GS GS 4th W GS

Mumbai Indians GS GS R 3rd 4th W

Rajasthan Royals W GS GS GS GS 3rd

Royal Challengers GS R 3rd R GS GS

Pune Warriors India DNP DNP DNP GS GS GS

Deccan Chargers GS W 4th GS GS DNP

Kochi Tuskers Kerala DNP DNP DNP GS DNP DNP

Sunrisers Hyderabad DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP 4th

Notes:W = Winner; R = Runner-up; SF = Semifinalist; PL = Playoffs; GS = Groupstage; DNP = Did Not Play; TBD = To be Decided Statistics and records

Season Winners Runners-up Semi-finalists Teams

Rajasthan Chennai Super Delhi

2008 Kings XI Punjab 8

Royals Kings Daredevils

Royal Deccan Chennai Super

2009 Challengers Delhi Daredevils 8

Chargers Kings

Bangalore

Royal Chennai Deccan

2010 Mumbai Indians Challengers 8

Super Kings Chargers

Bangalore

Royal Chennai Kolkata

2011 Challengers Mumbai Indians 10

Super Kings Knight Riders

Bangalore

Kolkata Chennai Super Mumbai

2012 Delhi Daredevils 9

Knight Riders Kings Indians

Mumbai Chennai Super Sunrisers

2013 Rajasthan Royals 9

Indians Kings Hyderabad

Chennai Super Kings

The Chennai Super Kings are a franchise cricket team based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu that plays in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Founded in 2008, the team is currently captained by Mahendra Singh Dhoni and coached by , a former cricketer. The team's home ground is the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, located at Chepauk, in Chennai.

The Super Kings are the most successful team in the IPL having won the title twice in succession (2010 and 2011) and reached the play-offs every season.[1] They hold the joint record for the longest winning streak in IPL (7), set during the 2013 season. They were the first Indian team to have won the Champions League Twenty20. The leading run-scorer of the side is , while the leading -taker is .[2][3] The brand value of the Super Kings in 2012 was estimated at US$75.13 million, making them the most valuable franchise in the IPL.[4]

On 24th May 2013, the team principal, Gurunath Meiyappan, was arrested on charges of betting, conspiracy and cheating after he was questioned by the Mumbai Crime Branch.[5]However, the BCCI ruled out speculations of scrapping the team from the IPL.[6]

During the first player auctions for the inaugural IPL season conducted in January 2008, the Chennai franchise bought a number of contemporary star cricketers such asMahendra Singh Dhoni, , Stephen Fleming, andMichael Hussey.[12] Mahendra Singh Dhoni became the costliest player of the auction, as the Chennai franchise bought him for $1.5 million.[13] The franchise named Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the of the team and appointed as the head coach.[14] They played their first game on 19 April 2008 against Kings XI Punjab at Mohali. The Super Kings won the game by 33 runs after posting 240/5 in 20 overs, which was the highest total of the tournament, a record surpassed by themselves in 2010.[15] The Super Kings ended the league stage with eight wins from 14 games and finished third on the points table.[16] They beat the Kings XI Punjab by 9 wickets in the semifinal.[17] The Super Kings faced the Rajasthan Royals in the final of the IPL at Mumbai. first, the Super Kings scored 163/5 in 20 overs and lost the game by 3 wickets off the final of the match.[18] They also earned a spot in the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 along with Rajasthan, but the tournament was cancelled due to the 2008 Mumbai Attacks and the Super Kings, along with Rajasthan, received $5 million each as compensation.[19] Fleming, who had decided to retire from all forms of the game after the first season of the IPL, took over as the coach of the Super Kings team from Wessels for the next season which was to be held in .

For the 2009 season, the Super Kings bought English all-rounder for $1.55 million at the auction making him the highest-paid IPL cricketer along with English teammate who was bought for the same amount by Royal Challengers Bangalore.[20] However, Flintoff played only 3 matches for them before suffering a knee injury that ruled him out of the season. The Super Kings were also without the services of Hussey who had decided to skip the IPL season to focus on .[21] The Super Kings finished with 17 points from 14 matches and earned a second place at the league table.[22] However, at the semi-finals, their hopes of entering the final for a second time were crushed by the Royal Challengers who beat them by 6 wickets.[23] The Super Kings opener Matthew Hayden, who scored 572 runs in 12 with 5 half-centuries at an average of 52 and strike-rate of 145, won the Orange Cap for the leading run- scorer of the season[24] and was also adjudged Player of the Tournament.

2010: IPL and CLT20 double

In 2010, the Super Kings struggled in the first half of the regular season, winning only two matches out of seven. They won four of their next five games in the season mainly due to the efforts of and Suresh Raina. After a defeat at home to the Delhi Daredevils, the Super Kings were left with a must-win match against Kings XI Punjab at Dharamsala. The Super Kings won the match by six wickets as they chased down the target of 193 with two balls to spare with skipper Dhoni scoring an unbeaten 54 from 29 balls.[25]Thus, with seven wins from 14 matches, Chennai finished with the same number of points as three other teams with two semi-final spots at stake. Chennai got the third place as they had the better net run rate of the four teams which finished on 14 points.[26] In the semifinal, the Super Kings scored a modest 142/7 in 20 overs against the defending champions Deccan Chargers. But an inspired spell from (4/13 in four overs) did the most damage as the Chargers were bowled out for 104. This gave the Super Kings a 38-run victory that took them to the final.[27] The Super Kings faced the tournament favorites Mumbai Indians at their home ground in the final.[28] Suresh Raina's 57 (35) helped the Super Kings recover from 68/3 after 12 overs to put up 168/5 at the end of their 20 overs. Then, their spin duo of and Muralitharan conceded only 41 runs in the 8 overs bowled between them to help the Super Kings win the game by 22 runs and secure their first ever IPL title.[29] With this, the Super Kings also qualified for the 2010 Champions League Twenty20 that was held in South Africa. At the Champions League, the Super Kings were placed in Group A along with champions of Twenty20 competitions from , South Africa, New Zealand and . The Super Kings topped the Group table with three wins and a defeat to theVictorian Bushrangers.[30] In the semi-final at , the Super Kings comprehensively defeated IPL rivals Royal Challengers Bangalore by 52 runs. Raina won the Man of the match for his unbeaten 94 off 48 balls.[31] The Super Kings played their first CLT20 final at Johannesburg where they beat the Chevrolet Warriors by 8 wickets, becoming the first IPL team to win the CLT20.[32] Murali Vijay won not only the Man of the Match in the final for his 58 but also the Golden Bat for scoring the most runs in the tournament and Ashwin, who was the leading wicket-taker, was adjudged the Player of the Series. At the end of the season, Matthew Hayden decided to retire from the IPL.

2011-2013: Continued dominance in the IPL

In 2011, as two new teams were added to the IPL, the IPL Governing Council declared that each franchise could retain a maximum of four players of their squad, only three of whom can be Indian players, and the rest of the international players would be put in the mega-auction. The Chennai franchise, keen to have the same set of core players, retained captain MS Dhoni, vice-captain Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay and all-rounder Albie Morkel for a total of $4.5 million. The retention left them with the power of spending only $4.5 million at the mega-auction. At the auction, they bought back some of their star players of previous seasons such as Hussey, Ashwin, Bollinger and Subramaniam Badrinath. In the 2011 IPL, they lost three of their first five games which placed them at the bottom of the ten-team points table.[33] But then, they went on to win seven of their next eight games to finish second and register a spot in the knockout stages. They faced the top-ranked team Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Qualifying final which they won by 6 wickets thanks to an unbeaten 73 from Suresh Raina.[34] In the final, they faced the same opponents again, which was held at their home ground Chepauk. Vijay and Hussey put on a 159-run first-wicket that helped the Super Kings to post a total of 205/5. Their bowlers, then, restricted Bangalore to only 147 to take the Super Kings to second consecutive title in the IPL. Vijay was awarded Man of the Match for his match-winning innings of 95.[35] CSK also won all their home games that season becoming the first team in IPL to achieve the feat. However at the Champions League later that year, they won only one out of their four group matches and finished at the bottom.[36]

In 2012, the franchise signed up Indian all-rounder for $2 million at the players' auction.[37] They got off to a rather slow start in the regular season, winning only five of their first 12 games which put them in doubt of qualifying for the Playoffs. Then they won three of their last four matches and qualified for the Playoffs with a better net run rate than the Royal Challengers who also finished with the same number of points.[38] In the Eliminator, they beat the Mumbai Indians by 38 runs before thrashing the table-toppers Delhi Daredevils in the Qualifying final by 86 runs. Murali Vijay, who struck his second IPL hundred (113 off 58 balls), won the Man of the Match.[39] At the final, the Super Kings were defeated by 5 wickets by the who chased down the target of 191 with two balls to spare, thus denying the Super Kings a hat-trick of titles in the IPL.[40] At the Champions League, once again they could not progress past the group stage with two wins and two defeats.[41]

In 2013, the Super Kings strengthened their bowling attack by signing up five overseas and five Indian bowlers.[42] In the IPL season, they finished first in the points table with 11 wins from 16 matches and qualified for the Playoffs and 2013 CLT20.[43] This was the first time in six seasons that the Super Kings had topped the league table of the IPL. During the season, they also equaled Royal Challengers Bangalore's 2011 record for most wins in succession in the IPL (7 wins on trot).[44] In the first Qualifier at Delhi against Mumbai Indians, the Super Kings posted 192/1 in 20 overs riding on unbeaten half-centuries from Hussey (86* off 58 balls) and Raina (82* off 42 balls) before bowling out their opponents for 144.[45] Thus they entered the final of the IPL for the fourth time in succession where they would play the same opponents, Mumbai Indians, at Kolkata. At the final, batting first, the Mumbai Indians made 148/9 in their 20 overs. In reply, the Super Kings were reduced to 39/6 at one stage before an unbeaten half- from skipper Dhoni took them close to the target. However, Mumbai Indians won the match by 23 runs to win their first ever IPL title.[46] Super Kings opening batsman , who scored 733 runs that season at an average of 52, won the Orange Cap for the most runs in the season while all-rounder won the Purple Cap for bagging the most wickets (32).[47]

Honours

Indian Premier Champions League Year

League Twenty20

2008 Runners-up Cancelled (Q)

2009 Semifinalists DNQ

2010 Champions Champions

2011 Champions Group stage

2012 Runners-up Group stage

2013 Runners-up Q

 Q = Qualified; DNQ = Did Not Qualify

Overall results in IPL

Performance summary in Indian Premier League[85]

No Success Year Matches Wins Losses Tied Position Summary Rate

2008 16 9 7 0 0 56.25% 2nd Runners-up

2009 15 8 6 1 0 53.33% 4th Semi-finalists

2010 16 9 7 0 0 56.25% 1st Champions

2013 16 11 5 0 0 68.75% 1st Champions

2011 19 10 8 1 0 52.63% 2nd Runners-up

2012 18 12 6 0 0 66.67% 2nd Runners-up

Total 99 59 39 1 0 60.2%

Player salaries

Year Contract Nat Player Salary Signed / Renewed

[81]

MS Dhoni 2011 $3,000,000

[82]

Ravindra Jadeja 2012 $2,000,000

[83]

Suresh Raina 2011 $1,300,000

[83]

Murali Vijay 2011 $900,000

[83]

Ravichandran Ashwin 2011 $850,000

[83]

Subramaniam Badrinath 2011 $800,000

[84]

Chris Morris 2013 $675,000

[84]

Dirk Nannes 2013 $600,000

[83]

Albie Morkel 2011 $500,000

[83]

Michael Hussey 2011 $425,000

[83]

Dwayne Bravo 2011 $200,000 Year Contract Nat Player Salary Signed / Renewed

[83]

Francois du Plessis 2011 $120,000

[83]

Wriddhiman Saha 2011 $100,000

[83]

Ben Hilfenhaus 2011 $100,000

[83]

Nuwan Kulasekara 2011 $100,000

[84]

Ben Laughlin 2013 $20,000

[84]

Jason Holder 2013 $20,000

$20,000[84]

Akila Dananjaya 2013

MUMBAI INDIANS

The Mumbai Indians are a franchise cricket team representing the city of Mumbai in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The team is one of the eight founding members of the IPL in 2008. They are one of the main teams in the city, together with clubs like the and football club Mumbai FC. The team is owned by India's biggest conglomerate, Reliance Industries, through its 100% subsidiary IndiaWin Sports. The primary home ground of the Mumbai Indians is the .

The Mumbai Indians are currently captained by , and coached by John Wright. They won the 2011 Champions League Twenty20 after beating IPL rivals Royal Challengers Bangalore by 31 runs in the final. The team won its first IPL title, in 2013, by defeating Chennai Super Kings by 23 runs in the finals played at Kolkata.[2][3] Rohit Sharma is the leading run-getter of the team while is the leading wicket-taker.

Reliance Industries Limited purchased the rights for the Mumbai franchise of Indian Premier League for a total of 496 Cr during the auction on January 24, 2008. The franchise was eventually named the Mumbai Indians. The RIL bid made the Mumbai Indians the most expensive franchise in the 2007 IPL auction till 2010 edition. In 2011 team auction saw the Sahara Pune Warriors bought by Subroto Roy taking that title worth 1726 Cr ($ 375.2 m).

2008 IPL season

The season got off to a bad start for the Indians, having lost their captain . With taking over as captain, the team proceeded to lose their first 4 matches of the tournament. After Harbhajan's suspension for slapping Sreesanth, assumed the leadership duties until Tendulkar's return on May 24. After his return Mumbai won 6 out of 6 games needing to win 2 more to qualify for semi final. However They were unable to do so as they lost 3 of their next 4 games. All these three games were lost on the last ball of the match. The match between Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab played on May 21 was considered to be the best of the season with diving full length to the MI batsman on the last delivery of the match. The Indians finished with a record of 7 wins and 7 losses. played a vital role in securing two important wins for the team.

Mumbai Indians were the most watched team on television in the first edition of the IPL tournament, totaling to 239 million viewers.[4]After posting a revenue of 69 crore and expenditure of 85 crore, the first season left the owners with net loss of INR 16 crore and were expected to break even in the 2009 season.[5]

2009 IPL season

The 2nd version of the League, which was hosted in South Africa as the season coincided with multi-phase 2009 Indian general elections and the Government of India refused to commit security by Indian paramilitary forces. Mumbai Indians faced Chennai Super Kings in the opening match, which the former defended the score comfortably. Mi was predominantely lied on JP Duminy as their go to man as no other player was able to support him and this led Mumbai Indians scrambled up later in the season with successive defeats, and hence ending up in the bottom two at the points table.

2010 IPL season

The team had a strong start after defending a total of 212 against the Rajasthan Royals in their first match and went on to beat Delhi Daredevils defending another 218. The team was supported by match-winning knocks from Sachin Tendulkar, , . However the Mumbai Indians crumbled to the Royal Challengers Bangalore for their first loss in 3 games. In their next game, Mumbai Indians, after restricting the Kolkata Knight Riders to 155, chased the total with ease, as Sachin Tendulkar scored a blazing knock of 71 from 48 balls. They also won in the same fashion against Chennai Super Kings with Sachin Tendulkar, again playing a match-winning knock of 72 from 52 balls. They continued their winning streak by beating the defending champions, Deccan Chargers, thanks to an amazing knock of 49 from just 18 balls and a spell of 3–31 by Harbhajan Singh. They also went on to beat Kings XI Punjabby 4 wickets, courtesy of , Saurabh Tiwary & Rajagopal Sathish. They also defeated the Deccan Chargers by 63 runs and won their 7th game in 9 games played. On April 11, 2010, Mumbai Indians beat Rajasthan Royals to become the first team in IPL 2010 to qualify for semi-finals. In their 12th game, they defeated Delhi Daredevils and remained the table toppers with 18 points and a run rate of +1.12. In their next match, they beat the Royal Challengers in their home ground in a match that was delayed due to a small intensity blast in the stadium premises. In the final league game against Kolkata Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians rested many of their key players. Dwayne Bravo led the team in absence of Sachin Tendulkar and they went on to lose the game by nine wickets. With 20 points they were at the top of the points table and played their first IPL semi-final against Royal Challengers Bangalore. They crushed their opponents in the semifinals despite losing Sachin Tendulkar for a single digit score, which happened to be his first single digit score that year in all forms of the game. They lost their first IPL final by 22 runs to Chennai Super Kings after failing to chase 169. They also qualified for Champions League Twenty20 2010 along with Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore. Sachin Tendulkar amassed 618 runs in that tournament with a of 132.61 and won the Orange Cap for becoming the highest run-getter of that season.[6] He also won the 'Best Batsman' and the 'Best Captain' awards at the IPL Awards 2010.[7]

2011 IPL Season

Due to increase in Number of teams from 8 to 10, there was change in the format in which the Further editins of IPL Group Stages are to be played. Each team in the IPL 2011 will play 14 games in total, which adds up to 70 group games for the entire league. The ten teams have been divided up into two groups of five teams each. Each team would thus be playing 1) home and away matches with the remaining four teams in its group, 2) a home and away match with one randomly chosen team from the other group and 3) one match each with the remaining four teams of the other group (two of these four matches at home and two away). However, this division into groups will not have any relationship to the points table, which would be compiled together for all ten teams, and from which the top four teams will qualify for the next round of matches.[8]

Season

The team lead by Sachin Tendulkar got off to a flying start by defeating Delhi Daredevils and restricting them to a meagre total of 95,courtesy of Malinga's 5 wicket haul and winning by 8 wickets. They then won their next game against Royal Challengers Bangalorewith considerable ease by 9 wickets. In their 3rd game they lost to the despite scoring 185 odd runs. They got back to winning ways with wins over and the Chennai Super Kings, during which Harbhajan Singh took a 5 wicket haul and Rohit Sharma scoring a stunning 87 of 48 balls. Next they defeated Deccan Chargers with a fantastic stand of 102 from Rohit Sharma and after going from 70–1 to 70–4. Sachin Tendulkar once again shown its impressive performance this IPL season, scoring 513 runs from 10 matches played and Lasith Malinga was the best bowler that season, taking 28 wickets from 15 matches played. Mumbai Indians has been the most balanced team of this IPL season winning 10 matches out of 15 played and has been at no.1 position in points table for long. James Franklin helped Mumbai Indians in beating Kolkata Knight Riders by 7 wickets on May 22 with a vital contribution of 45 runs off 23 balls, helped Mumbai Indians qualify for the Qualifiers at 3rd spot ahead of Kolkata Knight Riders. On May 25 in the eliminator round, Kolkata Knight Riders put a modest total of 147 in 20 overs and with the Sachin Tendulkar – opening duo gave a blazing start to the Mumbai Indians innings, putting on 81 runs in 7.5 overs to set the platform and James Franklin unbeaten at 29 runs led Mumbai Indians for the victory by 4 wickets fixing a spot in the Playoff againstRoyal Challengers Bangalore. It was the second consecutive season the Mumbai Indians reached the semifinals. Mumbai Indians lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore by 43 runs in the playoffs for the final.[9] Chennai Super Kings eventually won the IPL season four by defeating RCB in 2011.

IPL 2012 Season

Due to the disbanding of Kochi Tuskers Kerala, each team will play the remaining eight teams twice, once at home and once away. Therefore each team will play an extended season of 16 matches. Harbhajan Singh has taken over as captain, and Mumbai finished third. Their first playoff match was against Chennai Super Kings.

Mumbai Indians opened the season by defending Chennai Super Kings score of 112 in the 17th over, with scoring a half century on his first match for the team.[11] The team had won 10 matches out of 16 in the season, including a last ball finish against Chennai Super Kings, with 14 runs requiring of 3 balls, as , who was playing his first match in the team for the season hitting 2 boundaries and a six to attain the score. The match was considered as one of the most amazing turnarounds in the history of IPL.[12] Mumbai Indians managed to enter the play off round for the second consecutive time, have been gained 20 points in the tournament. 197 for 6 wickets was the highest total for Mumbai Indians in the season and second highest score in the history of IPL,[13]whereas individually Rohit Sharma had scored 109 in 60 balls against Kolkata Knight Riders was the highest.[14] Mumbai Indians were eliminated by CSK in the first eliminator tie, thus ended up fourth in the season.[15]

IPL 2013 Season

Mumbai Indians clinched their first IPL Trophy as they defeated Chennai Super Kings by a convincing 23-run margin in the Pepsi IPL 2013 final at the in Kolkata on Sunday night. Batting first, MI posted 148 after opting to bat first before their bowlers restricted CSK to 125. This was the smallest ever total made by team batting first and successfully defended by any team in the six editions of the IPL.

In this season, Mumbai was the most balanced and formidable lineup in the IPL beating the likes of CSK. They started their campaign on a bad note by losing the match narrowly by 2 runs to Royal Challengers Bangalore while chasing 156 mounted by 's imagistic willow but the famed opening duo of Ponting and Tendulkar who were given the nickname of Pondulkar, did not lived up to the expectations as they were thought to do and late hitting by took them that close. In the next match they were up against the two-time champions Chennai Super Kings. Ponting won the toss and elected to bat first but as CSK bowlers who were making the headlines by tearing apart the MI lineup until the Trinidadian big-hitter comes to play and hit a ballistic 57 runs innings and set the target at 149 which was successfully defended by MI by 9 runs; thanks to superb catch by Pollard of CSK skipper M. S. Dhoni at line when he was going all guns blazing with a quick fire fifty taking his team home. Mumbai came to their home turf – Wankhede Stadium which they created their fortress and comprehensively beat Pune and Delhi by large margins of 44 and 41 runs respectively when their middle order consisting of Dinesh Karthik and Rohit Sharma came to the play scoring fifties in both the innings and winning MOM awards. Then on the road they lost to Rajasthan Royals at their home in Jaipur by just bundling out on 98 and losing the game by 87 runs; and then at Delhi they were thrashed by scoring 95 of 40 balls taking DD past the challenging score set by MI thanks to fifties by Sachin Tendulkar and Rohit Sharma and posting 176 runs on the board and yet losing by 9 wickets.

After two back to back losses Mumbai moved to the defending champions ground – Kolkata Knight Riders where they kept their impressive record alive and beat the champions in a convincing manner but the 40-yr-old turned Sachin Tendulkar could not get the runs to make it icing on the cake and felled in the trap of mystery spinner Narine. This was the first match of Rohit Sharma as the captain of Mumbai Indians when dropped himself from the team and in his place come the opener Dwayne Smith, sending KKR bowlers to all corners of the ground with a handsome fifty. Then they moved to their home and faced the uphill task against Royal Challengers Bangalore with Chris Gayle in sublime mood, but then came the old chin music by new MI speedsterMitchell Johnson and the old bazooka Lasith Malinga firing at all cylinders to Chris Gayle and their effort was rewarded with a win of 58 runs and then they beat Kings XI Punjab by a whisker of 4 runs thanks to the last over lusty hitting by the skipper Rohit Sharma making 79 from 39 balls. Then the MI captain faced his first defeat on road to the resurgent Sunrisers Hyderabad where an inspirational spell from Ishant Sharmamade them comfortable to win by 7 wickets. Then returning at home and again winning the crucial battle of the in which MI toppled against CSK bowling attack but then the most strong bowling lineup of MI pulled it back against Pollard who dropped 4 out of 6 catches that day; 3 of being alone Michael Hussey in first over itself. Then winning their next four games in a row against KKR, SH, RR on a trot at home and Pune Warriors India on road, MI qualified for the Playoffs. In the game against SH,Sachin Tendulkar injured himself while hitting a six and was out of the tournament. They were the second team in that season to win all their home matches, after Rajasthan Royals. In the last match against Kings XI Punjab, at Dharamsala, MI fielded its second fiddle as they were already qualified and lost the match by 50 runs.

Mumbai Indians finished second in the points table(their best after 2010 season) and moved Delhi for the first qualifier against Chennai Super Kings who rammed MI in every field and won the match comfortably by 48 runs and qualified for the Finals at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. They played against resurgent Rajasthan Royals in the second qualifier at Eden Gardens and thanks to brilliant all round display by Harbhajan Singh. In the Final against Chennai, Rohit Sharma won his First Toss in the Playoffs and elected to bat first but it all goes bizarre against great CSK bowling until Kieron Pollard came to crease and with his quick fire 60 and took Mumbai to a respectable score of 148/9 (Lowest ever team total score in an IPL Final). But there comes the twist, Rohit Sharma gave the new ball to Lasith Malinga for the first time in the tournament and he displayed why he is such a successful bowler in the T20 format and struck in his first over by removing Michael Hussey and Suresh Raina in consecutive balls. And then it was all Mumbai till the end, whereasIndian Cricket Team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni stayed at the crease till the end but failed to stop the Mumbai Indians from winning their first ever IPL Trophy.

There also came the shocker when Sachin Tendulkar when he announced his retirement from the Indian Premier League and it was then the time for celebration and victory parade.

Overall results in the IPL

No % Year Total Wins Losses Position result Win

2008 14 7 7 0 50.00% 5

2009 14 5 8 1 35.71% 7

2010 16 11 5 0 68.75% 2

2011 16 10 6 0 62.50% 3

2012 17 10 7 0 58.82% 4

2013* 19 13 6 0 68.42% 1

Total 95 56 39 1 58.94%

Year contract Nat Player Salary signed / renewed

[27]

Rohit Sharma 2011 $2,000,000

Sachin Tendulkar 2011 $1,800,000

Harbhajan Singh 2011 $1,300,000

Dinesh Karthik 2012 $1,200,000

Lasith Malinga 2011 $1,100,000

Glenn Maxwell 2013 $1,000,000

Kieron Pollard 2011 $900,000

Pragyan Ojha 2012 $800,000

Munaf Patel 2011 $700,000

Ricky Ponting 2013 $400,000

Mitchell Johnson 2012 $300,000

Dwayne Smith 2012 $100,000

James Franklin 2011 $100,000

$20,000

Aiden Blizzard 2011