The Indian Premier League is the biggest cricket carnival in the world. With a perfect mix of Indian domestic players and International cricket stars, the league offers unlimited excitement. Introduced in 2008, IPL evolved bigger and better and built excitement every season. Amid the Covid pandemic and lockdown when people stayed indoors, cricket fans were over the moon when the 14th edition of IPL was announced.
IPL 2021 started with a bang and exceeded expectations as always. After 29 matches were played, Covid-19 hit the camp and forced the BCCI to suspend the event abruptly. However, the second half of IPL 2021 is rock and roll from September 19 in the UAE. Ahead of the start of the UAE leg, let’s look at what has happened so far, right from the IPL auction, fixtures and points table.
The IPL 2021 auction was held in Chennai on 18th February. Close to 300 players went under the hammer, while the event witnessed many thrills and chills. Chris Morris was signed by Rajasthan Royals for a whopping 16.25 crore breaking Yuvraj Singh’s record for the highest bid in IPL history. Punjab Kings spent eight crores for Riley Meredith, who became the most expensive uncapped overseas player ever. K Gowtham made history as he went for 46.25 times his base price (Rs 20 Lakh) when Chennai Super Kings signed him for Rs 9.25 crore, the biggest leap for any player ever. Players like Joe Root, James Pattinson, and Mitchell Starc did not register and opted out of the auction.
The second phase of IPL begins on September 19 in Dubai between Mumbai and Chennai. The first Qualifier is played on October 10 in Dubai, while the Eliminator and Qualifier 2 are scheduled on October 11 and 13 respectively and the final match is held on October 15.
Delhi Capitals is ahead of other teams on the leaderboard, followed by Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai in the top four. Rajasthan and Punjab are at number five and six with three wins each. While Kolkata had a tough tournament with two wins, Hyderabad is at the bottom of the points table with just one win.
Catch all the IPL action streaming live on Star Sports, Disney+Hotstar and YuppTV.