It has been 15 years and the 16th season of the IPL is going on and IPL celebrated its birthday on 18th April and it has been a glorious 15 years of the IPL and it will only get bigger as it gets past it’s teen years and it becomes a full blown adult. It has become a $11 Billion plus entity in just 15 years and in the next 5 years it will cross the $15 billion mark. It is the second most valued sports league in the world just after the NFL from America and is more valuable per match than the English Premier League.
The IPL has become the standard of cricket around the world and all cricketers across the world want to come to India and play in the IPL and the income that they get for playing 2 months is massive so the players make sure that they are fit at the time of the IPL so that they are able to give the best for their franchise. And the IPL has seen some truly astonishing moments in its 15 years and close to 980 Matches and the 1000 match mark is also approaching.
So, let’s look at the Top 5 Moments of IPL history:
1) Brendon McCullum’s 158
No matter what happens in the IPL this will always be the biggest moment in IPL history because without this moment there is no saying how long it must have taken for the IPL to get to the level that it is at now. Brendon McCullum played such a mind boggling innings the IPL took off like a rocket and it never looked back after that. The IPL and it’s fans will always be grateful to Brendon McCullum for giving IPL the start he gave and for playing the greatest innings of all time.
Also Read | McCullum Gives Blasting Start To IPL
2) MS Dhoni joins the Chennai Super Kings
Some people might think why a player joining a team is one of the biggest moments, one does not need to look far ahead and just look at the 15 years the IPL has been there and the impact that MS Dhoni has had on this tournament. He is the biggest star in the IPL even after retiring from international cricket 4 years ago. And Chennai Super Kings became the biggest franchise in tt IPL and it’s all Thanks to the magic man. He has led the team in all editions of the IPL and CSK have won 4 IPL titles till now. And whenever the time comes that Dhoni decides to retire from the IPL, it will be a big blow to brand IPL.
Also Read | Best knocks of MS Dhoni in IPL
3) Virat Kohli hits 973 runs in IPL 2016
This will likely never happen again because what Virat Kohli did in 2016 will always be in the record books and that IPL season is one of the best of all time. Virat Kohli was in his prime and no matter who the bowler was he used to smash them all around the grounds in India. He hit 4 hundreds in the same IPL season and he had a strike rate of over 140 and an average of 75 plus. Due to that display of batting by Virat Kohli the IPL became the best league in the world and now whenever every IPL starts the question is asked whether anyone will be able to break the record of Virat Kohli.
Also Read | Best knocks of Virat Kohli in IPL
4) Rohit Sharma becomes the captain of Mumbai Indians
Mumbai Indians were one of the most underperforming teams in the IPL from 2008-2013 even after having some of the best players in the world and they were just not able to do anything in the IPL. And then came IPL 2013 and in between the tournament Rohit Sharma was made the captain and he was given full authority as to what team he wants to play. Rohit Sharma led the team to their first ever IPL title in 2013 and from there the journey to becoming the most successful IPL captain started as again in 2015, 2017 and 2019 he won the IPL trophy so it was 4 titles each to CSK and Mumbai Indians. However in 2020, the team that Mumbai Indians had was one of the best teams ever assembled and they dominated the IPL to win the 5th title for Mumbai Indians.
Also Read | Best Knocks by Rohit Sharma in IPL History
5) KKR’s miracle IPL win in 2014
There have been a lot of IPL wins, 15 in total but in only 1 season the team had to come from behind and win all the last 9 mmm Matches to win the IPL. KKR had a terrible start to the 2014 IPL season when they lost badly in the Dubai leg of the IPL and they were written off by everyone but when the IPL came back to India then the fortunes of the team started to change as they started to win matches and they won every match and at every ground they went and beat the home team. KKR was being led fearlessly by Gautam Gambhir and he was batting so well along with Robin Uthappa. They finished in the Top 2 by a miracle and then they won the last 2 matches and won the IPL. This is the greatest comeback story in the history of the IPL.
