The 16th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) came to a thrilling conclusion in the wee hours of Tuesday with Chennai Super Kings defeating Gujarat Titans by five wickets at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad to win their fifth title under MS Dhoni’s leadership.
The summit clash began on Sunday evening but ended up getting stretched over a couple of days with erratic weather threatening to play spoilsport but ultimately relenting and allowing the two sides to play out one of the closely-fought finals in the history of the world’s biggest T20 league.
Along the way, the season witnessed a major change with a new rule being implemented, the said rule helping make the tournament a lot more competitive and exciting.
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Looking back at the events of IPL 2023, we take a look at some of the trends from the bygone season and how the tournament changed this year:
Impact Player
The biggest talking point this season was the introduction of the Impact Player rule, which had been piloted in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in late 2022 before being implemented in the cash-rich league. The rule, which essentially could be seen as cricket’s first attempt at bringing in a substitution-like rule that is in place in team sports such as football, replace a player at any given stage of the match.
What was important was the fact that the Impact Player did not have to be a like-for-like replacement of the substituted player and could play as a fully-functional member of the XI, allowing teams to start with an extra batter in their lineup if batting first, and then bringing in a bowler in the second innings. The rule did have a revolutionary effect on the league, which we explore in greater detail below.
Frequency of 200+ totals
Thanks to the introduction of the Impact Player rule, teams got to field an extra batter in their lineup while batting. The most noticeable impact of that rule — more 200+ totals being scored this season than ever before.
For context, the inaugural season of the IPL in 2008 saw 11 200-plus totals. That number grew to 15 in what was a high-scoring 2018 season, and to 18 last year.
Most 200+ totals in an IPL season:
37 – in 2023
18 – in 2022
15 – in 2018
13 – in 2020
11 – in 2008
11 – in 2019#IPLFinals— Kausthub Gudipati (@kaustats) May 29, 2023
Teams doubled that number in the explosive 16th score, with the 200-barried being breached a whopping 37 times. The key reason behind the explosion of such high scores was freedom that the presence of an extra batter gave most teams.
Tight finishes
The 16th edition could also be described as one of the most competitive seasons ever witnessed, and the Impact Player rule might have had some say in this regard. This was, after all, a season when even a total of 200 wasn’t safe, with the team batting second also having the luxury of fielding an extra batter. As many as seven targets of 200 or more had been successfully chased down this season, with Mumbai Indians alone account for three of those chases.
The most famous one of them all, however, was Kolkata Knight Riders’ epic triumph over Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad, in which Rinku Singh struck five sixes in a row to help the two-time champions chase down 205 in one of the most thrilling finishes in the tournament’s history.
Senior players making a comeback
The season also witnessed quite a few senior players making an emphatic comeback. Ajinkya Rahane’s fortunes as a T20 player had been on the decline for a while until MS Dhoni’s backing in the Chennai Super Kings gave him renewed confidence. Rahane, considered by some as a red-ball specialist who batted the old-fashioned way in the shortest format, ended up collecting 326 runs at a stunning strike rate of 172.49, including a 27-ball 61 against Mumbai Indians in Mumbai.
Mohit Sharma had been a net bowler with the Gujarat Titans last season, and had been overlooked in the initial round of matches this year, and he ended up in the second spot on the wicket-taker’s list with 27 scalps at a superb average of 13.37. And let’s not forget MI’s Piyush Chawla, who had been commentating last season and would go on to play a key role in Mumbai’s bowling performances this season, finishing fourth in the bowling chart with 22 scalps to his name.
A unique final
And let’s not forget the most unique incident of them all — an IPL final stretched over three days.
The Chennai Super Kings vs Gujarat Titans final that was supposed to begin on Sunday evening ended up getting moved to the Reserve Day — for the first time in the history of the league, due to incessant rain in Ahmedabad. It was also one of the handful of occasions when the final did not take place on Sunday.
There would also be rain drama on Monday, the reserve day, resulting in CSK’s target being revised to 171 in 15 overs, which they ended up chasing down in the wee hours of Tuesday. It was well past 3 am by the time MS Dhoni and his boys finally lifted the trophy.
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