IPL winner team list

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, then you will be eliminated.

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

Talking about competition and how difficult is winning the IPL, six different teams have won the prestigious trophy over 10 seasons. In terms of titles won, Mumbai have been the most successful with three (2013, 2015 and 2017), while Kolkata Knight Riders (2012 and 2014) and Chennai Super Kings (2010 and 2011) have been IPL winners 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, but as aforementioned, they were beaten by the better team on those nights. Mind you, CSK have been favourites to win the IPL every time they have reached the Final, but Rajasthan in 2008, Kolkata in 2012 and Mumbai in 2013 and 2015 beat MS Dhoni’s men to the title. Chennai Super Kings have, however, been the only IPL team to date to defend their IPL title. They successfully defended the title they won in 2010, in 2011.