3 times when the winner of the opening match won the IPL trophy
The Indian Premier League is a lengthy tournament where any team's chances do not get jolted by early defeats. In IPL, every team gets enough chances to iron out their flaws and get to the winning ways. But, in any sport, the winning momentum is one thing that cannot be sidelined.
Though the early defeats are not bothering, the early winning momentum is very much fruitful. Any team, with early wins on their side, can do experiments with its squad before finalizing the best playing eleven to take to the field in the knockout matches.
In the eleven year history of the IPL, the team that won the opening match of the season, went on to win the title thrice. Let's have a look at those three instances:
#1. Chennai Super Kings, IPL 2011
In the opening match of the 2011 season, Chennai Super Kings faced Kolkata Knight Riders at Chennai, and defeated the visitors by 2 runs in a thrilling contest, as Tim Southee defended nine runs in the last over. Going ahead in the tournament, Chennai Super Kings kept flourishing, especially at home, as they became the first team to win all home matches in IPL.
After the league stage, Chennai finished at the second position in the points table, behind Royal Challengers Bangalore. CSK defeated RCB in the first qualifier and met them again in the final after RCB defeated Mumbai Indians in the second qualifier.
In the final, CSK was all over RCB as they won the match by a big margin of 58 runs. Chasing a daunting total of 205, RCB could never get going and fell short by a considerable margin. Murali Vijay was the man of the match on the back of his dazzling 95 off 52 balls.
Follow Sportskeeda for all the updates on IPL 2019 live score, purple cap, points table, schedule, news, orange cap and fantasy tips.