Last Updated on 2 years by Charbel Coorey
Cricket News: 5 Best IPL Opening Day Matches | Best matches on the opening day in Indian Premier League history
The 16th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) commenced with the Gujarat Titans defeating the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by five wickets at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The game was closely contested and Cricblog takes this opportunity to explore the five most crunch and exciting opening day encounters in the history of the IPL so far.
1: IPL 2008
The very first game of the IPL began with a bang with former Kiwi skipper Brendon McCullum smashing 158 runs off 73 deliveries to help Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) get to 222 at the end of 20 overs.
McCullum hit 10 boundaries and 13 sixes in an absolute carnage that tore apart the Rahul Dravid-led Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) unit and set the stage for the grand carnival that the league unfolded to become over the following decade-and-a-half. Kolkata’s bowling them came together to attack in tandem and bowled out RCB for 82 runs to round off a comprehensive 140-run victory.
2: IPL 2018
The opening match of IPL 2018 marked CSK’s return to the competition after a two-year-long suspension. They squared off against the Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium and were set a target of 167 by the Rohit Sharma-led team.
Chennai were reduced to 84/6 at the end of 13 overs but star all-rounder Dwayne Bravo pulled off a heist by hitting seven balls over the boundary line to get to 68 in 30 deliveries. Kedar Jadhav came out to bat despite a hamstring injury and scooped Mustafizur Rahman over fine leg to steer CSK to a dramatic victory in their comeback game.
3: IPL 2021
The 14th season of the IPL commenced amidst Covid-related restrictions in Chennai with an encounter between RCB and Mumbai Indians (MI). The match went right down the wire with RCB chasing down 160 in the final ball of the match. Harshal Patel maintained his calm right till the end to score four off three deliveries, in addition to his five wickets in the first innings that earned him the Player of the Match award for the game. Patel went on to pick 32 wickets and win the Purple Cap that season.
4: IPL 2023
Friday’s faceoff between CSK and Gujarat Titans (GT) was a tight contest as the defending champions defeated the four-time IPL winners in the final over of the game with Rashid Khan scoring 10 off 3 deliveries to seal the encounter in their favour.
Ruturaj Gaikwad’s 92-run knock went in vain as Chennai couldn’t contain a hugely impressive Titans batting line-up from cruising to the total despite the best attempts of former India U-19 star Rajvardhan Hangargekar, who scalped three wickets in his four-over spell.
5: IPL 2011
The fourth season of the IPL commenced with CSK recording a narrow two-run victory against KKR at Chepauk. Chennai put up 153 on the board courtesy a splendid 64-run knock by Srikanth Aniruddh but Kolkata ran them close through a 54 by Jacques Kallis and a nice 27-run cameo by Manoj Tiwari. Eventually, Chennai’s bowling attack held their nerves towards the final stages of the game as all the bowlers barring Albie Morkel took a wicket each as CSK began their title-winning campaign on a positive note.
