The Indian Premier League (IPL) will be entering its 14th season when the 2021 edition starts on April 9. In the 13 seasons of the cash-rich league, fans have witnessed several moments of cricket brilliance. There has been drama, there have been emotions, there has been a thrill. The league has provided fans with many extraordinary moments. 

The stakes of wins and losses in the league are high as ever now. Every team wants to compete and win the title. Each of the teams in the league has set high standards for themselves, producing high-quality cricket. The league’s reputation to produce high-voltage action and train cricketers to handle pressure has made cricket boards send their players to play in the league. 

With the new season of the league coming, we can be assured that we will see some more amazing cricket moments. It is a great time to look back at the best moments in the tournament’s history.

Here are the top 5 moments of the IPL:

1. Rajasthan Royals winning the first IPL 

When the first auction happened and the final squads were announced, Rajasthan Royals’ side seemed like the weakest among the eight teams. They didn’t have an icon Indian player like Mumbai or Kolkata. They didn’t have a lot of international cricket stars at the time. However, with Shane Warne as the captain and head coach, the Royals had a solid man leading them. 

The Royals had Graeme Smith, Shane Watson, Darren Lehmann, none of whom were known established T20 players yet. Then, there were youngsters like Ravindra Jadeja, Sohail Tanvir, Swapnil Asnodkar, Yusuf Pathan, and Munaf Patel. Warne got the entire squad together and somehow made them work in perfect synchronization. In each and every match, they had some or other person standing up and putting up a match-turning performance. 

They surprised everyone by winning 11 out of their 14 league matches. Royals faced Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) in the semi-final, beating them comprehensively by 105 runs. In the final, they overcame MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings in a tight contest. Sohail Tanvir, the leading wicket-taker in the tournament fittingly hit the winning runs with Warne at the other end. The Royals winning the inaugural season is a long-told story of underdogs punching above their weight and succeeding against all odds.

2. MS Dhoni’s sixes helps Chennai to qualify

Chennai was on the brink of securing a semi-final spot in 2010, after ending as the finalists and semi-finalists in the 2008 and 2009 seasons respectively. Between them and a third successive knockout qualification, stood an uphill task of beating Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings). Chennai faced them in a do-or-die clash in Dharamsala, Punjab’s adopted home. 

Batting first, Punjab scored 192 for 3. Chennai found themselves in a tricky position with 44 runs still required from 18 balls. Skipper MS Dhoni stood at one end. When Chennai entered the final two overs, they still needed 29 runs. Dhoni hit two boundaries in that over to bring down the equation to 16 runs from the last over. He hit a four and took two runs off the second ball. 

With 10 needed off four balls, Dhoni launched two huge sixes off the bowling of Irfan Pathan. Both the sixes seemed bigger than the other. As the ball went up, almost disappearing in the Dharamsala skies, Chennai celebrated their qualification. They went on to win the tournament and won another title the next year. Those two huge sixes by MSD are still etched in the memories of his fans.

3. Chris Gayle’s 175*

Chris Gayle was drafted into the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad midway through the IPL 2011 season after initially going unsold. He ended with 608 runs in the 2011 season and followed that up with 733 runs in the 2012 season. He had scored three centuries in the two seasons. But, his fiery batting couldn’t still eclipse Brendon McCullum’s record of the highest individual score in an IPL match, 158. 

All hell broke loose on Pune Warriors India in an afternoon match in Bengaluru in the 2013 edition. Gayle got his team off to a wonderful start. Gayle reached his fifty in just 17 balls, equaling what was then the record for the fastest IPL fifty. In the next 13 balls, he was able to score his next 50 runs, remarkably reaching the fastest ever hundred in all of recognised cricket. 

Up to now date, no one has been able to break the record. Interestingly, when Gayle reached his ton, his opening partner Tillakaratne Dilshan had scored only 17 runs off 25 balls. Gayle ended with 175 not out off just 66 balls, which remains the highest ever score by a batsman in a T20 match. The big West Indian hit 13 fours and an incredible 17 sixes during his marathon knock which took RCB to 263 for 5, the highest ever total in the IPL. 

4. Brendon McCullum’s 158 in the inaugural match

The Indian Premier League was the first T20 league to work a franchise model which allowed a set number of overseas players. In 2008, before the league started, no one knew what to expect from it. Sourav Ganguly’s Kolkata Knight Riders travelled to Bangalore to face Rahul Dravid’s Royal Challengers in the inaugural match. 

A fantastic opening ceremony set the tone for what was going to be cricket’s most glamorous tournament to date. Brendon McCullum, the New Zealand wicketkeeper, opened the innings with Ganguly. A top edge flew over the third man boundary for a six. What followed was the batting of the highest order, not seen ever by the Indian fans. 

For the next hour and a half, McCullum kept hitting the RCB bowlers all over the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. He hit IPL’s first ever century and carried on to go past 150. This was the first time when a batsman had crossed that landmark in a T20 match. He ended with 158* runs off 73 balls, with 10 fours and 13 sixes. His knock was the perfect way to start off the tournament, which in the years to come, became the most profitable T20 league in the world. 

5. Chennai winning the IPL on their comeback

In 2013, the world was shocked when Chennai Super Kings’ team principal Gurunath Meiyappan was put behind the bars with allegations of being involved in cricket betting. The BCCI was forced to ban the Chennai franchise for two years. At the time, it felt like a big loss to the league. Having won the IPL title and Champions League T20 twice, CSK was the biggest team in the league. 

All the players were auctioned off to other franchises. But, ahead of the 2018 season, CSK returned to its operation. Many had thought that they might release their top players, but they stuck with them. MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina, Faf du Plessis, and Dwayne Bravo returned to form the core of the side. 

They qualified for the playoffs, keeping their record of making it to the final four in each of their seasons. They first beat Sunrisers Hyderabad in a thrilling Qualifier match to enter the final. Dhoni’s men met Hyderabad once again in the final. It was Shane Watson’s century that bailed Chennai in the summit clash and gave the franchise their third title. It was a fairytale ending for what had been a tough couple of years for the team and its core members.