The Indian Premier League is one of the most awaited cricket tournaments each year. If there is any country that has so much love for the sport, it is India. The IPL is not just about the best Indian cricketers but also international or foreign players that cricket fans love.
Aside from the teams and players involved in the league, the IPL is also rich in field actions and memorable events. If you’re going to take a look at the IPL head to head to stats on any cricket-related site, you can easily spot some of the hottest IPL rivalries that are still there today.
These rivalries created some of the biggest IPL matches of all time. We’re here to give you the lowdown of these said events which we’re sure will only make you more excited about certain upcoming matches in this year’s season.
2016 Match 53: Rising Pune Supergiant vs Punjab Kings
It’s not the first time that the IPL will have new teams. Rising Pune Supergiants was one of the replacement teams that the IPL brought to life when Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were suspended because they were allegedly involved in illegal betting. Because of that, Rising Pune Supergiants was able to play on the IPL in 2016 and 2017.
In the short time that the team played in the IPL, they were able to make a lasting impression. In 2016, the team was able to beat Punjab Kings by just four wickets. During this time, the RPS had cricket superstar MS Dhoni. The match ended with Punjab having a 172/7 score and the RPS with 173/6.
2017 IPL Final: Mumbai Indians vs Rising Pune Supergiants
Even if RPS wasn’t one of the top IPL teams, you can tell that they still fought hard to take the team somewhere. Another close fight that the RSP had happened on May 21, 2017. This was a match against Mumbai Indians which RSP lost by 1 run.
This time, Rohit Sharma was one of the hard to ignore players of the game. The RSP did well but it just wasn’t enough to beat MI which had Krunal Pandya and Mitchell Johnson during that time. The match ended with RPS scoring 128/6 and MI with 129/8.
2018 Match 5: Chennai Super Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders
During the fifth match of the 2018 edition of the IPL, CSK and KKR were able to make quite a history. Andre Russell, who was playing with KKR during this time, was able to set a batting record. The lower-order batsman was able to smash 11 sixes and even scored 88 runs off 36 balls.
With Russell making this record, he was able to make his team have a total score of 202/6. Meanwhile, CSK was still able to win the game with 205/5. It may have been a monumental moment for Russell but sadly still didn’t beat CSK’s lead of 5 wickets.
2019 IPL Final: Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings
Another breath-taking IPL Final that people talked about so much happened in 2019 between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings. Jasprit Bumrah and Lasith Malinga were able to give Mumbai Indians the championship that year. This was so significant because Malinga wasn’t even purchased in the 2018 Mega Auction because of his unimpressive 2017 performance.
Bumrah was able to get the player-of-the-match award with 2-14 from four overs. Malinga was then able to concede three runs from the final three deliveries. It was the final over that made the match special which trapped CSK’s Shardul Thakur and denied CSK the championship.
2020 Match 43: Punjab Kings vs Sunrisers Hyderabad
This is another match that people never really saw turning out the way it did. The match between SRH and Punjab Kings happened on October 24. In this, Punjab Kings was able to do something that many fans thought was impossible. SRH was able to put up a target of 127 runs and this somewhat made Punjab player KL Rahul feel the pressure.
When SRH only needed 17 more runs from the last 12 balls of the match after scoring 6 wickets, Punjab was able to catch up to the surprise of many. With the likes of Ravi Bishnoi, Chris Jordan, and Arshdeep Singh, who were all Punjab players during this time, we’re able to bring SRH from 110/4 to 114-all out with just 12 balls. Because of this, KXIP won the match by 12 runs.
