Since its inception in 2008, the Indian Premier League (IPL) has come a long way. IPL is now renowned as the world’s richest and most celebrated T20 League across the globe. Exactly 13 years ago, on June 1, 2008, the final of the inaugural edition of the T20 Championship was played between Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
The 2008 edition saw Rajasthan Royals’ domination under Shane Warne as the team won 11 out of their 14 league games. The exploits by the Royals continued in the finals too as they scripted a stunning victory against CSK by three wickets. The highly-anticipated final was played at the Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy in Mumbai.
The fixture commenced with Warne winning the toss and inviting MS Dhoni & Men to put the total on the board. Asked to bat first, CSK were decent with the willow as they were successful in posting a total of 163 runs on the scoreboard. Suresh Raina was the highest run-getter for the Super Kings with 43 runs off 30 deliveries followed by Parthiv Patel who smashed 38 runs. For RR, Yusuf Pathan was the pick of the bowlers as he picked three crucial wickets of Parthiv, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, and Albie Morkel.
Chasing 164, Rajasthan Royals got off to a torrid start as they lost their first three wickets in seven overs and were reeling at a score of 42 for three. CSK were deemed as the favorites to win as the bowlers had things under control.
However, Pathan and Shane Watson changed the entire dynamics of the game as they scripted a stunning partnership of 65 runs. While Watson played a small yet effective cameo of 28 runs, Pathan went berserk with the willow.
The all-rounder played a sublime knock of 56 runs off just 39 deliveries. His knock included three boundaries and four maximums at a strike rate of 143.59. The exploits by Pathan and Watson helped RR in scripting history by winning the first IPL final off the last delivery.
Credit : News 18
Picture Credit : Google
