Nineteen years ago, on April 19, 2008, a cricket tournament changed sport forever. What began as a bold, chaotic experiment is today a $16-billion empire
- the most-watched T20 league on the planet.
Franchises, auctions, cheerleaders, last-ball finishes, records shattered every season. The IPL did not just change how cricket was played. It changed who played it, who watched it, and what it was worth. As the IPL turns 19, we look back at twelve moments that wrote its history.
1. Brendon McCullum's 158* - The Night Everything Changed (2008)
Nobody knew what to expect from this new tournament. McCullum answered the question in the very first match. Facing RCB in Bangalore, the New Zealand wicketkeeper smashed 158* off 73 balls - 13 sixes, 10 fours - in an innings that stunned the cricket world. It was not just a performance. It was a statement. The IPL had arrived, and it was going to be unlike anything before it.
2. Sohail Tanvir's 6/14 - The Bowler Fights Back (2008)
The IPL was supposed to be a batsman's paradise. Sohail Tanvir did not get the memo. In just the fourth week of the tournament's first season, the Pakistan left-arm pacer tore through Chennai Super Kings with figures of 6 for 14 - the best bowling figures in IPL history that still stand today. A reminder, amid the fireworks, that bowlers could still win cricket matches.
3. Rajasthan Royals Win IPL 1 - Warne's Masterclass (2008)
No superstars. No big budget. No expectations. Shane Warne took a team of uncapped Indians and journeymen and turned them into champions. Rajasthan Royals winning the inaugural IPL title remains the greatest underdog story the tournament has seen. It also set the template for smart franchise building - that culture and leadership could outperform money.
4. Chris Gayle's 175* - The Highest Score Ever (2013)
Against Pune Warriors in IPL 6, Chris Gayle did something that had never been done in T20 cricket and may never be done again. He walked out, picked his spots, and dismantled an entire bowling attack - 175* off 66 balls, 17 sixes, 13 fours. Halfway through his innings, 200 looked possible. He set records for the highest individual T20 score, the most sixes in a T20 innings, and the fastest T20 century - off just 30 balls. Pure, unrepeatable carnage.
5. Mumbai Indians Win By 1 Run - The Greatest Final (2019)
Two balls. Two runs needed. Lasith Malinga. That was the equation in the 2019 IPL final between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings. Malinga bowled a perfect yorker on the final delivery to dismiss Shardul Thakur. Mumbai won by one run. It remains the tightest, most nerve-shredding final in IPL history - a match that had no business being decided by that margin, and yet was.
6. Ashwin Mankads Buttler - Spirit of Cricket on Trial (2019)
No moment split opinion quite like this one. Rajasthan Royals were cruising in a chase with Jos Buttler in full flow. Then Ravichandran Ashwin ran out the non-striker at the non-striker's end before delivering the ball - the 'Mankad' dismissal. Legal. Controversial. Debated for months. The moment forced cricket to confront a long-standing grey area in its laws, eventually leading to the ICC formally reclassifying it as a standard run out. Whatever your view, it was unmissable television.
7. Virat Kohli's 973 Runs - A Season Like No Other (2016)
In 2016, Virat Kohli produced one of the greatest individual batting seasons in T20 history - 973 runs, four centuries, a strike rate that never dipped. RCB did not win the title. It hardly mattered. Kohli's season transcended the result. No batter in IPL history has come close to replicating it since. Nineteen years on, that number still stands alone.
8. IPL in UAE - Cricket in a Bubble (2020)
The pandemic halted sport worldwide. The IPL refused to stop. The BCCI moved the entire tournament to the UAE - three venues, a strict bio-bubble, empty stands, and players isolated in hotels for weeks. It was gruelling, strange, and logistically extraordinary. Yet the cricket was brilliant. Mumbai Indians lifted their fifth title in Dubai on November 10, 2020, proving that the IPL could survive anything - even a global health crisis. The UAE season showed the world that cricket could function under the most extreme conditions.
9. Mumbai Indians' Fifth Title - The Most Successful Franchise (2020)
When Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan finished off Delhi Capitals in the Dubai final, Mumbai Indians became the most decorated franchise in IPL history with five titles. It was their second consecutive championship, making them only the second team to defend the IPL crown. Built on a philosophy of retaining core talent and a relentless culture of winning, MI's fifth title cemented their place as the gold standard of IPL franchises.
10. Rinku Singh's Five Sixes - The Greatest Heist (2023)
KKR needed 29 runs off the last over against Gujarat Titans. ESPNcricinfo's forecaster gave them a 1.29% chance of winning. No team had ever scored that many in the 20th over of a T20 chase. What followed was the most astonishing six balls in IPL history. Rinku Singh hit Yash Dayal for five consecutive sixes to win the match. The last ball, with four needed, sailed over Dayal's head. Even before it cleared the ropes, Rinku was already running. KKR's bench cleared onto the field. Commentator Nick Knight had already written them off. He was wrong.
11. CSK Win Fifth Title - Jadeja's Last-Ball Boundary (2023)
It was 1:35 am on the third day of what was supposed to be a single T20 match. Rain had come. The target had been revised. Dhoni had come and gone for a duck. CSK needed 10 off the last two balls. Ravindra Jadeja hit a six and then a boundary off Mohit Sharma to seal it. Chennai Super Kings won their fifth IPL title, drawing level with Mumbai Indians as the most successful franchise in the tournament's history. It was, fittingly, the kind of finish only CSK seem to produce.
12. Double Super Over - When Cricket Went to Extra Time, Twice (2020)
In 18 editions of the IPL, a Super Over had decided matches before. But two Super Overs in a single game? That was uncharted territory. Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab - now Punjab Kings - tied their match in regulation. The Super Over was tied too. A second Super Over was needed, a first in IPL history. Punjab won. But the moment belonged to the tournament itself. This was the IPL at its most deliriously, wonderfully unpredictable.
Nineteen years. Twelve franchises, 10 current, two gone. Billions of dollars, billions of views. And still, every season, the IPL finds a way to produce a moment nobody saw coming. That is the secret. That is why, on April 19, 2026, a tournament that started as a gamble is the most powerful force in cricket. The 19th edition is currently underway. The next great moment is just a match away.
