The 2018 Indian Premier League season (also known as IPL 11 and branded as Vivo IPL 2018) was the eleventh season of the
Indian Premier League
The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a professional Twenty20 (T20) cricket league in India, organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Founded in 2007, it features ten city-based Professional sports league organization, fr ...
, a professional
Twenty20 cricket
Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...
league established by the
BCCI
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the principal national governing body of the sport of cricket in India. Its headquarters are situated at the Cricket Centre in Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. BCCI is the wealthiest governing body ...
in 2007. The season, which was held from 7 April to 27 May, saw the return of the
Chennai Super Kings
The Chennai Super Kings, also known as CSK, are a professional Twenty20 cricket team based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The team was one of the eight debut franchises when the league was establ ...
and the
Rajasthan Royals after serving two years of suspension for the involvement of their respective owners in the
2013 IPL betting case.
Star Sports purchased the media rights at ₹16,347.5 crore ($2.55 billion) for five years starting from 2018. The tagline was ''Best vs Best.''
Chennai Super Kings
The Chennai Super Kings, also known as CSK, are a professional Twenty20 cricket team based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The team was one of the eight debut franchises when the league was establ ...
won by 8 wickets against
Sunrisers Hyderabad in the
final
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...
to win their third title.
Sunrisers Hyderabad captain
Kane Williamson
Kane Stuart Williamson (born 8 August 1990) is a New Zealand international cricketer and a former captain of the New Zealand national team. On 27 February 2023, Williamson became the all-time leading run-scorer for New Zealand in Test cricket. ...
won the
Orange Cap for the leading run-scorer of the tournament with 735 runs.
Andrew Tye, of
Kings XI Punjab, was awarded the
Purple Cap for finishing as the leading wicket-taker of the tournament with 24 wickets.
Sunil Narine of
Kolkata Knight Riders
The Kolkata Knight Riders, also known as KKR, are a professional Twenty20 cricket team based in Kolkata, West Bengal, that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The franchise is owned by actor Shah Rukh Khan, actress Juhi Chawla, and ...
was named Most Valuable Player, also known as Man of the Series, while
Rishabh Pant of
Delhi Daredevils was named the Emerging Player of the Series.
Background
This was the first season of the IPL to use
DRS. IPL Fanpark, an initiative where matches are hosted in stadia on a large screen has been planned to be held across 36 cities in 19 states across the India. This season also introduced mid-season transfers. The
transfer window
In association football, a transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club, club can add players to their squad who were previously under contract with another club. Such a Transfer (association football), transfer is comp ...
will be a short five-day transfer window applicable only for uncapped players who have played not more than two matches at the halfway mark of the tournament.
Format
Eight teams were scheduled to play in 2018. The tournament involved each team playing every other team twice in a
home-and-away, double
round-robin format. At the conclusion of the double round-robin league, the top four teams on the basis of aggregate points qualified for the
playoffs
The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...
. In this stage, the top two teams compete with each other (in a match titled "Qualifier 1"), as do the remaining two teams (in a match titled "Eliminator"). While the winner of Qualifier 1 directly qualified for the final match, the losing team got another chance to qualify for the final match by playing the winning team of the Eliminator match; this match is titled Qualifier 2. The winner of this subsequent Qualifier 2 match moved onto the final match. The team that won the final match was crowned the Indian Premier League winners. The schedule for the tournament was published on 14 February 2018.
Broadcast
Star Sports won the global media rights at ₹16,347.5 crore ($2.55 billion) for five years starting from 2018.
In India, the tournament will be broadcast on
Star Network
A star network is an implementation of a spoke–hub distribution paradigm in computer networks. In a star network, every host is connected to a central hub. In its simplest form, one central hub acts as a conduit to transmit messages. The ...
channels in six languages (English, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Bengali and Hindi).
For the first time, IPL would also be broadcast on public broadcaster
Doordarshan
Doordarshan (), abbreviated as DD, is India's State-owned enterprise, state-owned public broadcasting, public television broadcaster. Established by the Government of India on 15 September 1959, it is owned by the Ministry of Information and B ...
. The television rights for rest of the world were won by
Willow TV for US and Canada,
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...
for UK,
Fox Sports
Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...
for Australia,
Sky Sport for New Zealand,
SuperSport for sub Saharan Africa,
beIN Sports
beIN Sports ( ) is a Qatari multinational network of sports channels owned and operated by the media group beIN. The network has played a major role in the increased commercialization of Qatari sports. Its chairman is Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and its ...
for Middle-East and North America,
Flow TV
Ripe Digital Entertainment (RDE) was an on-demand digital entertainment company with video on demand components on several platforms. RDE was founded by CEO Ryan Magnussen.
Networks
Ripe's 'networks', which consisted of Ripe TV, Octane TV and ...
for Caribbean,
Geo Super for Pakistan,
Channel 9 for Bangladesh and
Lemar TV for Afghanistan.
The radio rights were won by Cricket Radio globally (except Indian subcontinent), 89.1 Radio 4 FM and Gold 101.3 FM for US and
Talksport
Talksport (styled as talkSPORT) is a sports radio station in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned by News Broadcasting. Its content includes live coverage of sporting events, interviews with the leading names in sport and entertai ...
for UK.
Star's digital platform
Hotstar
Disney+ Hotstar, also known as JioHotstar or simply Hotstar, is an Indian subscription video-on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Disney Star. The brand was introduced as Hotstar for a streaming service carrying content from Di ...
held the digital rights for India, US and Canada. The digital rights for rest of the world were won by Sky Sports for UK, Fox Sports for Australia, Sky Sport for New Zealand, SuperSport for sub Saharan Africa, beIN Sports for Middle-East and North America, Flow TV for Caribbean, Geo Super for Pakistan, Channel 9 for Bangladesh and
YuppTV for Australia, Europe, SE Asia & South America.
Star India also announced its plan to broadcast IPL in Virtual Reality.
Venues
Per the original schedule, all teams except for Kings XI Punjab, would play their home games at their traditional home venues. Kings XI were scheduled to play three of their home games in Indore and the other four games in Mohali.
The schedule was later changed due to logistical issues owing to the temporary closure of
Chandigarh Airport, and as a result, Kings XI would play three of their home games in Mohali and the other four games in Indore making an exception to the rule of playing at least four home matches at their designated home venue. The IPL matches in Chennai were threatened due to the
Kaveri water dispute protests. The
Madras High Court
The High Court of Judicature at Madras is a High Courts of India, High Court located in Chennai, India. It has appellate jurisdiction over the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry. It is one of ...
issued a notice to BCCI after a IPL was filed seeking a stay on the IPL matches in Chennai. On 11 April that Chennai's six remaining home matches would be held in Pune instead due to security concerns resulting from the protests.
Ten venues were selected to host the matches. The opening match and the final will be played at the
Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The venues for the two playoffs were not announced initially due to the norm of allotting the Eliminator and second qualifier to the home stadium of last season's runner-up, and the fact that the 2015 runner-up,
Chennai Super Kings
The Chennai Super Kings, also known as CSK, are a professional Twenty20 cricket team based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The team was one of the eight debut franchises when the league was establ ...
were no longer a part of the IPL. Later, both playoffs were allotted to Pune but after the venue of Chennai Super Kings was moved there, the matches were shifted to Kolkata.
Personnel changes
The IPL Governing Council announced that each IPL franchise could retain a maximum of five players from their respective current squads. Of the five players, a franchise could retain a maximum of three players through retention in lead up to the auction, and a maximum of three players through right-to-match card during the auction. The other restrictions on player retention were: a maximum of three capped Indian players could be retained, and only two overseas players and two uncapped Indian players could be retained. The salary cap for each team for the 2018 season was increased from ₹66 crore to ₹80 crore (approximately $12.4 million). A franchise was allowed to spend only ₹33 crore on retentions ahead of the 2018 IPL auction, leaving it at least ₹47 crore to spend at the auction.
IPL teams were asked to submit their retention list by 4 January. For the first time in IPL history, the player retention event was broadcast live on Star Sports. The IPL auction was held on 27 and 28 January at Bangalore a day after the final of the
Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
169 players (104 Indians and 56 Overseas) were sold at auction.
Ben Stokes
Benjamin Andrew Stokes (born 4 June 1991) is an English international cricketer who is List of England cricket captains, the captain of the England cricket team, England Test cricket, Test team. Stokes has played for England in all three forma ...
fetched the highest bid of ₹12.5 crore (US$1.95 million).
Jaydev Unadkat was the most costly Indian player at ₹11.5 crore (US$1.80 million). Among uncapped players
Krunal Pandya was most expensive at ₹8.8 crore(US$1.38 million). Many prominent players such as
Lasith Malinga
Separamadu Lasith Malinga (; ; born 28 August 1983) is a Sri Lankan former cricketer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest limited overs bowlers of all time. Playing as a right-arm fast bowler, Malinga was commonly used as a specialist ...
,
Dale Steyn,
Ishant Sharma,
Hashim Amla
Hashim Mahomed Amla OIS (born 31 March 1983) is a South African former international cricketer who captained the national side in Tests and ODIs. Amla holds the record for being the fastest ever to score 3,000, 4,000, and 7,000 ODI runs, joint ...
,
Martin Guptill and
Joe Root
Joseph Edward Root, (born 30 December 1990) is an English international cricketer, who plays for the England cricket team, English cricket team and formerly captained the Test team. He also represents Yorkshire County Cricket Club, Yorkshire ...
remain unsold.
Opening ceremony
The season had a single opening ceremony, unlike
2017 IPL, before the first match on 7 April. The ceremony included performances by
Varun Dhawan,
Prabhu Deva
Prabhu Deva (born 3 April 1973) is an Indian dance choreographer, film director, producer and actor who has worked predominantly in Tamil language, Tamil, Hindi and Telugu language, Telugu language films also appeared in few Kannada and Malayal ...
,
Mika Singh
Mika Singh (born 10 June 1977) is an Indian singer, rapper, musician and actor. His songs include "Bas Ek King" (''Singh Is Kinng''), "Mauja Hi Mauja" (''Jab We Met''), "Ibn-e-Batuta" (''Ishqiya''), "Dhanno" (''Housefull (2010 film), Housefull' ...
,
Tamannaah Bhatia,
Jacqueline Fernandez and
Hrithik Roshan
Hrithik Roshan (; born 10 January 1974) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi cinema. He has portrayed a variety of characters and is known for his dancing skills. One of the highest-paid actors in India, he has won many awards, including si ...
.
Teams and standings
Points table
''("C" refers to the "Champions" of the Tournament. '2', '3' and '4' are the positions of the respective teams in the tournament.)''
Match summary
League stage
Match results