The Indian Premier League is back with its eighth edition. The tournament is set to start on April 8th, 2015 in India. The event which has completely revolutionized cricket and entertainment since 2008 looks more promising as the time passes by. Indian Premier League currently has 8 teams and the number will remain the same in its 2015 edition as well. The tournament follows Double round-robin and playoff format of the cricket. Double round-robin is when every team plays the other team twice; once at the home ground and the other at a different stadium and qualify to the next round on the basis of points. The four teams which qualify for the next round which is the playoff system play a mix of single and double elimination tournament.
IPL 2015 will witness a total of 60 matches, including 2 qualifiers, 1 eliminator and a final on different venues all over India. The tournament will get off the mark with a nail biting opener between Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians played at Eden Garden, the city of Joy Kolkata. This tournament will be a real treat for the people of East India as the final will held at Eden Gardens, Kolkata as well on 24th May, 2015. Just like all the other seasons this year IPL will be broadcasted at Sony max and Sony Six respectively. You can also keep yourself updated by following them on twitter or downloading their cool app from apple or android store. Indian Premier League will be streamed live by “hotstar go solo” which are the digital partners for the tournament. You can watch the live broadcast at Youtube as well.
The only thing which is constant about Indian Premier League is the unexpected results every year. The tournament is full of surprises with things turning around at every second. Being the defending champions, Kolkata Knight Riders will have a lot of expectations on their shoulder. However, keeping the past record in mind and the consistency that they have shown since the first season of IPL, Chennai Super Kings have always been people’s favorite. Delhi Daredevils in the auction ceremony has sent out the message loud and clear, the buying of Yuvraj Singh and making him the most expensive player of 2015 IPL they have made it clear that they don’t want things to be the same as 2014. One cannot expect any lesser from Mumbai Indians keeping in mind they have played all the semi-finals in past four years. It will be good to see how Kings XI and Sun Risers will emerge this time. KXIP were the runner-up last season being the dark horses and a complete surprise for the spectators. Sun Risers on the other hand will be participating for the third time in the tournament and still has a lot to prove. Rajasthan Royals has always made it big with young under-rated players, under the captaincy of Shane Watson it will be good to see where the team goes.
Out of 11 franchisee’s that have participated in IPL, five have been lucky enough to be called champions. Two of them were brilliant enough to clinch it twice – Chennai Super Kings (2010, 2011) and Kolkata Knight Riders (2012, 2014). Rajasthan Royals, Deccan Chargers and Mumbai Indians has been champion once in 2008, 2009 and 2013 respectively.
There are no changes in the rule of how franchisee should pick players as such. Each team much have a sixteen player squad along with a physiotherapist and a coach. As IPL is design in a way that it gives exposure to domestic players, a franchisee can only have 11 players in the squad and no more than 4 in the playing eleven. A franchisee is mandated to have minimum of 14 Indian players on their side. The best part is every team should have at least 6 players from under 22 pool of BCCI. This gives all the young talents a platform to expose them to a greater challenge and showcase their talent at higher stage.
Indian Premier League has always been a house full event and the same will definitely continue this year as well. It is advisable that you book your tickets right away to cheer your favorite team. You can visit bookmyshow.com and ticketgenie.com two of the most trusted places from last year.
Hopefully, this time as well this tournament will bring a lot of entertainment and unveil some new talents to the cricket world. The tournament has truly developed a lot of cricketers and transformed cricket like never before. The T20 format in which the tournament makes it the king of all the daily soups on the Indian television. Let’s together hope for a better cricketing season which offers us great experience and lesser controversies.
The 2015 season was comparatively a better year for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. They began the season with a win against the defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders in their first match. But, they lost the next 3 matches against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings. However, the team won the 5th and 6th matches against Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils. The next match ended up with no result but they won the following match against Kolkata Knight Riders. However, they lost out on the following match against Chennai Super Kings. Out of the 14 matches played, the team won at 7 of them and secured a place in the Playoffs. Upon reaching the Playoffs, RCB won the Eliminator match against Rajasthan Royals but lost to Chennai Super Kings in the second Qualifier. They finished the League with 3rd position on the points table.
The 2015 IPL season again found the Punjab team in a bad spell. The team started the 8th edition with a loss against Rajasthan Royals but won the second match against Mumbai Indians. The team lost again in the 3rd and 4th matches against Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders. The fo9llowing match ended in a tie with Rajasthan Royals. After that what followed were a series of losses. Out of the 14 matches played, the team could only win 3 and finished at the last position on the points table. It’s to note here, in 2015, Punjab Kings had the maximum number of sponsors in the Indian Premier League.
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