IPL 2008: Rajasthan Royals' playing XI in the final - where are they now?
The inaugural season of IPL was played in 2008, where 8 teams had fought for the title. It was a treat for the Indians fans, as this was the first time when they had got to witness the cricketing heroes from all over the world on a single platform. After 45 days of hard-fought battle, Rajasthan Royals was finally crowned as the first ever champions of the league, which is now the richest and the most popular cricket league in the world.
In the final, Chennai Super Kings had posted 5/163, thanks to Suresh Raina's 30 ball 43 and the late fireworks from Captain Cool Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who scored 29 runs in just 17 balls. It was Yusuf Pathan, who kept CSK away from a bigger total, and his figures read 4-0-22-3.
While chasing, RR suffered early blows, when they lost Niraj Patel and Kamran Akmal for 2 and 6 runs respectively. This was when Shane Watson joined hands with Pathan, and the duo put a partnership of 65 runs. RR needed 8 runs in the last over, with Shane Warne and Sohail Tanvir on the crease and Lakshmipathy Balaji running with the ball. However, they managed to win this nail-biting match on the last ball by 3 wickets.
Rajasthan Royals, which won the first season, still remains an important and hard to beat franchise. They have got some of the best players in Steve Smith, Ajinkya Rahane, Ben Stokes and Jaydev Unadkat. They will be expected to provide tough competition in this season as well.
On this note, let us take a look at the squad, which won them the opening season of this prestigious tournament.
#1 Mohammad Kaif
Mohammad Kaif had a disappointing 2008 season, where he could score only 176 runs in the 16 matches that he played. He played his IPL last season in 2012. Finally, after his retirement in July 2018, he got engaged in other aspects of the cricketing world, mainly commentary and coaching.
He has been roped in as the assistant coach of the Delhi Capitals franchise for the upcoming 2019 season. He joins Ricky Ponting and James Hopes in the coaching team.