IPL winner team list, from 2008 to 2018

Glossary: CSK-Chennai Super Kings, DC-Deccan Chargers, KKR-Kolkata Knight Riders, KXIP-Kings XI Punjab, MI-Mumbai Indians, RPS-Rising Pune Supergiant, RR-Rajasthan Royals, RCB-Royal Challengers Bangalore, SRH-Sunrisers Hyderabad

Check out: Successful captains

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is easily the best and most competitive T20 cricket league in the world. And because the level of competition is high and the format is the way it is, whereby you have to win the qualifiers and Eliminator to even qualify for the Final, winning the IPL is by no means a gimme. You might have coasted through the league stage and finished top of the pile at the end of 14 matches. But if you don’t turn up for Qualifier 1 or 2, you will be eliminated.

The perfect example of this is, only twice have teams gone on to be IPL winners, having topped the table at the end of the league stage. Mumbai Indians (MI), the IPL 2017 (IPL 10) winner, and Rajasthan Royals, the IPL 2008 winner, are the only two teams to do so.

Talking about competition and how difficult is winning the IPL, six different teams have won the prestigious trophy over 11 seasons. In terms of titles won, Mumbai (2013, 2015 and 2017) and Chennai (2010, 2011 and 2018) have been the joint-most successful teams with three titles each, while Kolkata Knight Riders (2012 and 2014) have been an IPL winner twice. Rajasthan Royals (2008), Deccan Chargers (2009) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (2016) have been IPL champions once.

Chennai have also been in the most number of IPL finals (seven) and they have been the only team to date to defend their title, having successfully defended the title they won in 2010, in 2011.