We are a couple of weeks away from the start of the IPL 2023 . Currently we are having the first ever Womens premier league on (WPL ) and it is turning out to be a very successful event in its first year . The WPL will be over on 26 March and IPL will start from 31st March with the match between CSK & Gujarat Titans , the reigning champions.
As we await the IPL 2023 to begin ,we go down memory lane and look back at the first ever IPL final in 2008
Rajasthan Royals was being underestimated in the beginning of 2008 IPL as they had a team of the fewest superstars . But the team performed strongly under the captaincy of Shane Warne. Rajasthan won 11 out of 14 league matches played in 2008 and topped the points table followed in chronological order by Punjab , CSK and Delhi .
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Thus the semi finalists of the first edition of IPL were Rajasthan Royals, CSK, Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Daredevils.
In the semis Royals defeated Delhi by 105 runs while CSK beat Punjab by 9 wickets .
Rajasthan topped the points table of IPL 2008. They faced Chennai Super Kings in the final. CSK was third in the points table. The final was quite interesting though. The team captained by Dhoni was in decent form. The team won 8 out of 14 league matches. If we talk about the final, the players of Chennai gave their lives in this too.
In the final match, Chennai scored 163 runs while batting first. Suresh Raina played a brilliant innings of 43 runs for the team. He scored 43 runs off 30 balls with the help of 2 fours and a six. Opener Parthiv Patel also had a strong performance. He played an important innings of 38 runs. Parthiv hit 5 fours. Dhoni was unbeaten by scoring 29 runs in this innings. He hit 2 sixes and a four while facing 17 balls. In this way, CSK batted first and gave a target of 164 runs.
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Rajasthan chased Chennai’s target and won the match at the loss of 7 wickets. Yusuf Pathan scored a half century for Rajasthan. He scored a blistering 56 runs off 39 balls with the help of 4 sixes and 3 fours. Shane Watson scored a blazing 28 runs in 19 balls with the help of 3 fours. Mohammad Kaif contributed 12 runs.
With just 14 balls remaining and 21 needed , Yusuf Pathan got out bringing in Warne and Tanvir together . However both the bowlers took sharp singles and struck timely boundaries to finally win on the last ball in thrilling fashion . In this way, the Rajasthan Royals team won the match by 3 wickets until the last ball of the last over in an absolute thriller .