Mumbai: It was on this day 12 years ago that Rajasthan Royals defeated Chennai Super Kings in an epic final to be crowned as the champions of the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
The Shane Warne-led side, who had entered the tournament as the underdogs, defeated CSK by three wickets at the DY Patil Stadium.
“The first season, first win, the first glimpse of royalty! Here’s a tribute to the Royals of 2008 who made us believe that we can win from anywhere,” the franchise said in a post on Instagram on Monday.
Batting first, the MS Dhoni-led side had posted a total of 163/5, which included knocks of 43 and 38 from Suresh Raina and Parthiv Patel respectively. Skipper Dhoni had also played a nice little cameo of 29 runs from 17 balls.
Chasing 164, Rajasthan Royals were reduced to 42/3at one stage and looked in all sorts of trouble. However, Shane Watson and Yusuf Pathan added 65 runs for the fourth wicket before the former departed.
But, Pathan’s 56 off 39 balls inspired hope in the Rajasthan camp before he got run-out in the 18th over. With eight runs required off the final over, Sohail Tanvir and Warne finished the run-chase in the final ball of the match.
Another IPL final took place on this very day in 2014 when Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) won their second IPL title by defeating Kings XI Punjab, who were chasing their maiden IPL trophy. The Gautam Gambhir-led team had chased down the target of 200 runs in a nail-biting thriller in Bengaluru.
