Who Is The Most Consistent Team In The IPL?
The long-contested battle for the most successful Indian Premier League cricket team is a well-known raging war between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians. And it all came to a head in a scintillating IPL final showdown in 2019.
On that occasion, Mumbai cricket team emerged victorious over their dogged rivals, but up until that point, both teams had won three IPL titles apiece since its inception in 2008 – no mean feat by any standards.
Road To The Title Of The Most Consistent Team In the IPL
Having reached a total of eight finals, it may appear that when it comes to the crunch Chennai can’t quite get over the finish line. But equally, their staggering levels of consistency – with eight finals and two semi-finals in 10 seasons (they were suspended in 2016 and 2017) – are quite astounding, making Chennai’s cricket team one of the most consistent sports teams world wide.
In their very first IPL auction, Chennai Super Kings set out to make a statement, with the signings of global cricket superstars MS Dhoni, Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey and Muttiah Muralitharan.
Despite winning their opening game against Kings XI Punjab and posting a score of 240-5 which would remain unbeaten throughout the whole tournament – and indeed for more than two years until they surpassed it themselves – it wasn’t until 2010 that Chennai Super Kings lifted their maiden IPL title.
That has since been followed up with further victories in 2011 and 2018.
Chennai Key Players
Since that first campaign, Chennai’s cricket team have continued to acquire some of the most exciting cricket starts in the world. England’s Andrew Flintoff signed for the second IPL season but only played three matches before suffering a knee injury. Flintoff’s international team-mate, Kevin Pietersen, also joined Chennai at the same time.
Other cricket players filling their overseas player quota include Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Shane Watson and Tim Southee, while top Indian stars Murali Vijay, Parthiv Patel and Mohit Sharma have also pulled on the yellow shirt.
With so much mouth-watering talent at their disposal over the years, it’s not easy to select a Super Kings greatest XI. But on a stats-led basis, conforming to rules around overseas cricket players, it would look something like this:
Matthew Hayden
32 innings, 1107 runs, 36.9 batting average
Michael Hussey
49 innings, 1769 runs, 42.09 batting average
Suresh Raina
160 innings, 4527 runs, 33.28 batting average
Subramaniam Badrinath
67 innings, 1441 runs, 30.65 batting average
MS Dhoni
143 innings, 3858 runs, 44.34 batting average
Albie Morkel
75 innings, 76 wickets, 27.07 bowling average
Dwayne Bravo
86 innings, 104 wickets, 23.12 bowling average
Ravindra Jadeja
90 innings, 81 wickets, 24.87 bowling average
Ravichandran Ashwin
94 innings, 90 wickets, 24.22 bowling average
Deepak Chahar
29 innings, 32 wickets, 23.75 bowling average
Mohit Sharma
48 innings, 58 wickets, 22.17 bowling average
Super Kings Memorable Matches
Over 10 cricket tournaments, Super Kings have been involved in a number of unforgettable cricket matches. As already mentioned, they set the IPL alight in their first-ever match against Kings XI, posting 240-5. Michael Hussey hit an unbeaten 116 off 54 balls, before Kings XI fell just 33 runs short in their chase, giving fans a high-scoring thriller.
Another high-scoring encounter came against Rajasthan Royals in 2010, arguably one of the best IPL matches to date. Murali Vijay hit 127 off 56 balls, helping Super Kings to 246-5. During the Royals’ chase, Doug Bollinger dismissed Yusuf Pathan with a stunning catch on his IPL debut and, eventually, Rajasthan fell 23 runs short.
Skip forward to 2018 and a match where the Kolkata Knight Riders’ number seven, Andre Russell, hit 11 sixes to score 88 not-out off just 36 balls. But even that wasn’t enough to claim victory in a breath-taking game, as Super Kings managed to hit 17 off the final over to claim victory by five wickets.
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